Concerning the situation in France during the 18th and 19th centuries, Georges Auzou, professor of Sacred Scripture at the Great Seminary in Rouen, France, wrote in his church-approved book La Parole de Dieu (The Word of God): “Bible reading was not encouraged. . . . In fact, apart from the clergy and some intellectual circles, the holy Book was no longer read by Catholics. It had disappeared from [Catholic] bookstores. The idea was continually fostered that the Bible was a dangerous and even an unhealthy book . . . It was positively proscribed in nuns’ convents and in Christian [Catholic] educational institutions.”

Then things began to change. Mignot, Catholic bishop of Fréjus and Toulon, France, wrote in his preface to Vigouroux’s Dictionnaire de la Bible (1891-1912): “We are truly witnessing an awakening of Bible study in France. Twenty years ago [Bible questions] . . . interested only a very limited circle of initiated ones. . . . Less and less importance was attached to Bible reading and study. Such things were never discussed, and if, perchance, some pious layman quoted Isaiah or Proverbs, people looked at him with surprise and suspected him of having secret leanings toward Protestantism!”

Thus, while the Catholic Church now permits its members to read the Holy Scriptures, even granting a plenary indulgence “if the reading continues for at least one half hour,” it does not consider such Bible reading to be indispensable.a Explaining why, the French Catholic Dictionnaire de la Bible states: “Tradition is the most normal channel by which all teaching of the faith reaches mankind. Use of the New Testament Scriptures came later. They do not contain the entire deposit of faith, and their use is not essential.”

Tradition Put Above the Bible

The Bible is not, therefore, required reading for Catholics. And even if they do read it, it must take second place, behind tradition. The Catholic Church claims that the early Christians depended on oral tradition before receiving the written Word and that, accordingly, Scripture must be understood in the light of tradition as preserved by the church.

Confirming this viewpoint, a book designed to help French-speaking Catholics to read the Bible states: “The divine revelation, even that expressed predominantly in the Scriptures, has been committed to a faithful community, the living Church; this raises the vital question of the relationship between the Bible, Tradition and the Church. . . . This added light [in the Scriptures], once given, joins and completes the treasure of Tradition. . . . The Scriptures are, therefore, entirely dependent upon Tradition.”​—Initiation Biblique, pages 963, 971. Author’s italics.

Jesuit professor Paul Henry, of the Catholic Institute in Paris, wrote: “Scripture is normative [establishes an authoritative standard] for the life, the worship, the morals, and the theological doctrine of the Church. Normative, not in the sense that everything revealed or desired by God is explicitly written in Scripture, but inasmuch as nothing done or taught infallibly by the Church can be contrary to Scripture.”