I think many RC priests are worried they would not be able to answer the questions of their members if they were to actually read the texts for themselves.
I offer the below for consideration.
Identifying the reading and interpreting of the Bible as “Protestant” even affected the study of Scripture. Until the twentieth Century, it was only Protestants who actively embraced Scripture study. That changed after 1943 when Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. This not only allowed Catholics to study Scripture, it encouraged them to do so. And with Catholics studying Scripture and teaching other Catholics about what they were studying, familiarity with Scripture grew.http://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible/study-materials/articles/changes-in-catholic-attitudes-toward-bible-readings.cfm
Pope Leo XIII attached an indulgence to reading of the Gospels "by the faithful" in 1898. The church doesn't indulgence an act she finds objectionable or even unwise.
Here's the actual citation:
“An indulgence of 300 days for reading the Holy Gospels is granted to all the Faithful who read these Holy Scriptures for at least a quarter of an hour, with reverence due to the Divine Word and as spiritual reading…. A Plenary indulgence under the usual conditions is granted once a month for the daily reading.” Pope Leo XIII. December, 1898, Preces et Pia Opera, 045. (Enchiridion Indulgentiarium, 694).
Pope Pius VII wrote to bishops in 1820:
... to encourage their people to read the Holy Scriptures; for nothing can be more useful, more consoling, and more animating, inasmuch as they serve to confirm the faith, support the hope, and influence the charity of the true Christian.
Lest you think this was something kept from American Catholics, the Third Council of Baltimore taught in 1884:
“It can hardly be necessary for us to remind you, beloved brethren, that the most highly valued treasure of every family library, and the most frequently and lovingly made use of, should be the Holy Scriptures.... We hope that no family can be found amongst us without a correct version of the Holy Scriptures.”Many more such citations are here.
And while that may have been the official position, it did not filter down for a LONG time because when I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s we were still discouraged from reading the Bible.
We were told that only the priests and nuns who were trained for it, could really understand spiritual stuff like that and that they would explain it to us.
Seems that in a lot of areas there is a huge discrepancy between the official position of the church and what actually happens at the grassroots level.
Identifying the reading and interpreting of the Bible as “Protestant” even affected the study of Scripture. Until the twentieth Century, it was only Protestants who actively embraced Scripture study. That changed after 1943 when Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. This not only allowed Catholics to study Scripture, it encouraged them to do so. And with Catholics studying Scripture and teaching other Catholics about what they were studying, familiarity with Scripture grew.http://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible/study-materials/articles/changes-in-catholic-attitudes-toward-bible-readings.cfm
Ironically this only made things worse. At least before then most Catholics at least implicitly believed the bible even if they had no idea what it said. Divino Afflante Spiritu initiated the irreverent, modernizing, higher critical method of Biblical interpretation into mainstream Catholicism. Now that Catholics read they bible, they no longer believe it.
They were better off before.