Many non-Catholics hold the misconception that
the Catholic Church plays down the importance or even
disregards Sacred Scripture. This started with Dr. Martin
Luther, who in breaking with the Church, claimed that all
that is needed is Scripture, thereby throwing out both
sacred tradition and the teaching authority of the Church.
Many Protestants pride themselves on their “Bible-
based” churches, secure in their “knowledge” that the
Catholic Church has it wrong.
However, a close reading of the Epistles shows
that, insofar as the New Testament is concerned, The
Church pre-existed in the Bible. St. Paul addresses
letters to the Church in Corinth, to the Church in Gallatia,
to bishops and deacons. And the Epistles of Paul
predate the four Gospels. The Church can be said to
have written the Bible.
One does not need an historical understanding
of how the Scriptures came about to appreciate the
centrality of sacred scripture to the Catholic Church –
one only has to attend mass. At every mass there are at
least three readings from the Bible, a non-Gospel
reading, a Psalm and a reading from one of the Gospels.
On Sundays, there is an additional non-Gospel reading
so that the norm is an Old Testament reading, a Psalm,
a reading from either Acts or the Epistles, and a Gospel
reading. In fact the first half of the mass is call the
Liturgy of the Word.
St. Jerome, one of the four “Fathers” of the
Western Church, translated the Bible from the original
Greek and Hebrew into Latin to make Scripture more
accessible. This translation of the Bible is called the
“Vulgate”, meaning the common language, as Latin was
at that time. St. Jerome famously stated, “Ignorance of
the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”