For example nobody claims that banks want to prevent people from using pens since they often put chains on them to prevent people from taking them. They chain pens up so that people can use them. In the ages before the printing press when Bibles were hand written often by Catholic monks they were quite valuable so it is no surprise that steps were taken to keep people from taking a copy that might have taken a year or more to produce. In fact it was those same Catholic monks who made copies of Bibles over the years and created those beautifully illuminated manuscripts that we even have complete copies of the Bible to this day.
While it might be currently true that Protestant churches have much more emphasis on scripture study than the average Catholic parish has; Catholics certainly are encouraged to read scripture.  In fact the Church offers an indulgences (a topic for another day) to encourage such practices.  Catholics have long been studying and commenting on sacred scripture a millennium before Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation came on the scene and their are now plenty of new Bible Study apostolates growing in the Church.

One of the problems most people see with the Catholic Church and the Bible is that they don’t realize they have things backwards. The Church existed before one word of the New Testament was written down. Sola Scriptura would have been a really hard doctrine to follow in the year 33 A.D! Early Christians didn’t just go to their local Christian book store and buy themselves a Bible. The truth is that in the first four centuries of Christianity there was much discussion on what writings actually belonged to the New Testament. The Holy Spirit did not inspire anyone to write a table of contents for us to go by. Sometimes Catholics can take awhile before getting around to defining something and it was the Church that decided on the 27 books of the New Testament that we are all familiar with today during the Councils of Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD) and later dogmatically defined during the Council of Trent. Books such as the book of 1 Clement were held as inspired by many while some did not accept the Book of Revelation. It was the Church that decided the matter for the canon that all accept today when it comes to the New Testament. The Holy Spirit guided the Church in her discernment. St. Augustine who was quite active in this period of history where the canon was defined once said “I would not believe the Gospels if it were not for the Church.”

The Church has always taken her stewardship of the scriptures seriously, which is why Catholics have approved versions of the Bible. Catholics may read any version of the scriptures that they want to, but the Church in her prudence approves certain translations for liturgical and other use to protect us from error. This is done not to keep the Bible from Catholics, but to make sure that they have a translation free from outright error. Most Protestants certainly would have a problem with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation which is a very poor translation with an agenda.

But you ask “Hey if Catholics like the Bible so much how come they don’t carry them with them to their Mass?” Well some Catholics do exactly that, but the reality is the Catholic Mass is chock full of scripture from beginning to end. The first half of the Mass is the Liturgy of the Word where on Sundays we get three readings from the Old and New Testament and specifically one from the Gospels. The narratives used during the Eucharist are also straight from scripture and pretty much everything from the beginning of Mass to the end of it you are being immersed in scripture. If you just go to Mass on Sundays you will experience almost all of scripture during the three year cycle of readings that are used in the lectionary and those who go to daily Mass will experience all of scripture within a two year cycle of readings.

The Liturgy of the Hours which is required reading for all priests and religious each day and is strongly recommended for also the laity is also chock full of scripture. Each day as we go through the Office of Readings, Morning and Evening Prayer, and other readings we encounter Holy Scripture throughout – especially the Psalms.  Many of the prayers the Church uses are straight from scripture and the first half of the Hail Mary prayer comes from Luke 1:28.  Pretty much everywhere you turn in the documents of the Church whether it is the Catechism, encyclicals, or other Church letters you will come into contact with scripture constantly.

So if Catholics don’t like scripture than they have done a real lousy job by totally saturating everything with it.  In fact by preserving scripture Catholics have made it available for everyone and so if you are a Protestant next time you go to a Wednesday night Bible Study, thank a Catholic.

His descendants made sure they included long lists of geneology in their sacred Scripture. Eventually they graduated into discreet quantities:12 Tribes of Israel, The 10 Plagues, The 10 Commandments, etc.

Catholics have taken up this tradition with reckless abandon.  Not satisfied with the predictable Twelve Apostles and Four Evangelists, Catholics have made it a hobby to create lists, such as the infamous Index Librorum Prohibitorum, (which has given the American Library Association’s a yearly celebration of themselves and bad literature.)

Some bishops in the Church like to mix things up by changing the number of Holy Days of Obligation.  The Supreme Pontiff Pope John Paul II himself decided to (gasp) add to the list of the mysteries of the rosary.  That move got some circles questioning papal infallibility, even though it wasn’t a statement of faith and morals issued ex cathedra.

Lists are a great way of making sure you don’t forget anything, or get away with leaving out like things you just don’t like, such as the books of Maccabees or The First Letter of James.  See if you can fill in the blanks, and if you can then enumerate the lists:

__ Last words of Christ

__ Apostles

__ Holy Days of Obligation

__ Mysteries of the Rosary (including the new ones)

__ Holy Days of Obligation (all that might be obligatory).

__ Sorrows of Mary

__ Gifts of the Holy Spirit

__ Spiritual works of mercy.

__ Corporal works of mercy

__ Doctors of the Church

__ Theological virtues

__ Cardinal virtues (even though Cicero may have been the first to list these, any self-respecting Catholic home-schooler should know this.)

__ Latin adjectives that take the dative case (see note above).

Guest post from Doce Me Domine

A catechism is basically a summary of beliefs, often written in question and answer format. The first Catholic catechism was written after the Council of Trent and was primarily intended for the use of priests in their pastoral duties. Prior to Vatican II (and still widely used today) the Baltimore Catechism was fashionable in First Communion and Confirmation classes. The Baltimore Catechism has the distinction of being one of the few Catholic books capable of sending a chill down some people’s spines by just mentioning the title. True, making children memorize the Faith is probably one of the greatest injustices ever committed by Catholic educators, but even by the 1990′s this book was still used in confirmation classes. The good monsignor leading my class quizzed each teenager with a random question from the catechism.

Monsignor: Who made us?

Tiny Student: God made us.

Monsignor: That’s correct. Now your studies are complete.

This is the stuff Catholic nightmares are made of.

One of the great treasures of the modern church is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This two thousand, eight hundred sixty-five article book sums up the teachings of the Church using the thought of the early church fathers, the doctors of the church, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and serves as a reminder that Church teaching has remained constant throughout history. Such a great work is deserving of much commentary and Catholics in America can collect many peripherals. We have the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults for those people who still like the question and answer format. Other great peripherals include Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 100 Activities Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Catholic Catechism.

Aside from official Church catechisms and unofficial add-ons, there are also catechisms penned by people unlike you and me. There are some for kids and teenagers, some for adults, and some for pockets. We also have the Aquinas Catechism and the Penny Catechism (retailing for $4.00). So if you have trouble remembering what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is all about and if the Precepts of the Church are not quite at the tip of your tongue, then get a catechism. You might not know anything, but with the right reference book, you’ll never have to.

Guest post by James Rutherford, General Manager, Aquinas and More Catholic Goods

We do it to babies, to ourselves–all that splashing around in holy water isn’t just Catholics “freshening up” before Mass!  We’re rededicating ourselves to the service of God–if not exactly making ourselves holy, then at least reminding ourselves that we should be trying to make ourselves holy.  We already know about marriage and sex.

We do it to churches, altars, statues, oils, pagan practices going waaaaay back–we sanctify them, make them holy, turn them over to the service of God. We even do it to Protestant things, for example: Feels like an auditorium, used to be a Baptist church, add statues, get a priest and some holy water, sanctify the place, and you’ve got yourself a new chapel! What about music? Go to your local college parish or youth Mass and you’re bound to hear some stuff that doesn’t really sound like it should be in a Church.  Rather, you may have heard it on a Time Life commercial somewhere along the way.  But take some instruments (like synthesizers and acoustic guitars) that have clearly been turned over to the service of God (or something), and play pop during Communion, and instantly it’s Catholic.  Right?  Even if the theology is a bit of a stretch. . .

But how, you might wonder, can we Catholics do this?  Is it magic?  Sounds pretty suspect to most non-Catholics, gotta tell you.  Well, Jesus started it, you might say. Not only did He take the most shameful and painful death that the Romans could come up with and turn it into something glorious, He did the same for us and for our lives and deaths–made us new, brought us into His service.
And He told His followers to do the same, and they passed it on down to us (which is why a priest is generally involved). So when we sanctify things, we are partaking of this Grace, really.  Not doing it ourselves, but asking God to do it through us and for us.  Sanctification–get some.

Guest post from Literacy-chic.

Miracles are innately nifty occurrences.  Usually the world operates in a fairly predictable manner, but once in a while God will tweak something in creation, just so we remember who He is. For example, the sun usually moves slowly from east to west across the sky.  However, on October 13, 1917, He made the sun change colors and bounce around the sky in Fatima, Portugal.  Bathing in icy water usually tends to make one cold and prune-ish, but if you do it in Lourdes, France, it might cure a crippling disease.  These are just a couple of the myriad examples that include everything from flying nuns to fish that listen to sermons, and a number of other phenomena normally found in Star Trek.

There are some people who think that miracles are so much hokum.  They say that perhaps there was a mass hallucination/outbreak of wishful thinking at Fatima, despite identical testimony being given by both Catholics and non-believers.  Or that the reason Jesus appeared to walk on water was because he was stepping on ice floes, despite the obvious geographical problems involved. (If you subscribe to this theory, I can get you a great deal on a bridge in New York.)

Many of the people who say that miracles don’t exist are atheists. Miracles make atheists angry, because if miracles are real then God is real. They spend a lot of time constructing elaborate theories about “what really happened” that, sadly, tend to be far less convincing than the assertion of the miraculous.  It is important to be careful in mixing atheists and miracles; sometimes they convert, but then sometimes their heads explode, so make sure you wear goggles.

Contributed by 3SecondFish

Much of our liturgical piety serves to enhance the ineffable, the transcendent, the divine. Sure we have lots of stuff to satisfy the brainiacs, but even the most cerebral Catholics among us tend to get misty-eyed and goose-bumpy at the sound of church bells and chant, the scent of incense. We kneel, we bow. Dust motes dance in the multi-colored light streaming through stained glass windows.
We recite ancient prayers. Do we actually see the bread and wine become body and blood? Do we need to? We do not. We’re Catholics. We love mystery.

Some observers cynically suspect that “it’s a mystery” is code for “I haven’t a clue.”  But Catholics know it’s just another way of saying, “We believe.”

Guest post from Merideth Gould.

OK, now that you have picked yourself up off the floor, dusted yourself off…one would have surmised this surprising fact from the post Catholics Like Babies, eh?  Because, you may have noticed, the first often leads to the second.  Like it is some kind of natural consequence or something.  Wild.

But Catholics liking sex is a huge surprise to many.  After all, look at those celibate priests and sisters and brothers.  They are clearly repressed, right?  I don’t care if they look happy.  It’s not natural, I tell you!

Since I teach young people between 18-21, that is, at the height of their sexual urges age-wise, let me make this simple:

1.  Catholics like sex because God created it, and it’s a great gift both to humanity and within a married relationship, to each other.
2.  When rightly engaged, sex is ordered to growth in holiness.  That’s right.  A married relationship that is faithful, fruitful, and total helps each person grow in holiness.  Sanctification, baby.  A married couple could look at each other, flutter eyelashes, and say “Hey sweetie.  Up for sanctification tonight?”
3.  Some people voluntarily give up sex and its attendant relationship as a way to move more directly into union with God, which is where all of us are going anyway.  You don’t “give up” what you don’t like.  Who gives up brussel sprouts for Lent?  Only those without taste buds.  Who gives up chocolate?  Yum:  half the Catholic Church.  So, for the sacrifice to be meaningful, it must something reeeealy good you are giving up.  Get it yet?  Celibates recognize that sex is good.

As in most things, misunderstandings come from somewhere.  In this case, they come from, well, my favorite theologian-saint of all time, Augustine.  Augustine had a few teeny-tiny sexual issues in his adolescence and young adult life.  Teeny-tiny like the state of Texas.  And he said he couldn’t fathom how to convert because of his attachment to “woman” (his word), and sensed that to convert to Christianity, he would have to be celibate.  People have since pounced on that: the Biggest Baddest Church Father of all time hated women and sex!  The thing is, Augustine knew that in his particular case (and he was careful to speak for himself alone), he needed to make a clean break from what he did everything but call an addiction.  And it was never sex as God intended anyway (cue Theology of the Body music).  But he did humble himself to receive celibacy as a gift, and lived it out with grace, continuing to be a doting father to his son, Adeodatus.  Nice.

Ah, don’t ask me about Origen, though.