Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the USCCB Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis. Monsignor Daniel Kutys is a pastor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Such attitudinal changes bode well for Catholics, especially when reading and praying with the Word of God leads to lessons learned, hearts inspired and lives profoundly moved for good. Such experiences lead Catholics to seek familiarity with the Bible. Catholics who hear of and see other Christians quote or cite Scripture verses wonder why they cannot. References to John 3:16 appear in the stands at sporting events. culture also have encouraged Catholics to become more familiar with the Scriptures. All of this contributed to Catholics becoming more familiar with the Bible and more interested in reading the Scriptures and praying with them. The Charismatic movement and the rise of prayer groups exposed Catholics to Scripture even more. Adult faith formation programs began to develop, and the most common program run at a parish focused on Scripture study. Mass was celebrated in the vernacular and so the Scripture readings at Mass were read entirely in English. Scripture awareness grew after the Second Vatican Council. And with Catholics studying Scripture and teaching other Catholics about what they were studying, familiarity with Scripture grew. This not only allowed Catholics to study Scripture, it encouraged them to do so. That changed after 1943 when Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu.
Until the twentieth Century, it was only Protestants who actively embraced Scripture study. Identifying the reading and interpreting of the Bible as “Protestant” even affected the study of Scripture. Catholics meanwhile were discouraged from reading Scripture. Protestants rejected the authority of the Pope and of the Church and showed it by saying people could read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Up until the mid-twentieth Century, the custom of reading the Bible and interpreting it for oneself was a hallmark of the Protestant churches springing up in Europe after the Reformation. Once the printing press was invented, the most commonly printed book was the Bible, but this still did not make Bible-reading a Catholic’s common practice. Popular reading and ownership of books began to flourish only after the invention of the printing press. One simple reason: Centuries ago the average person could not read or afford a book. They heard it read aloud or prayed aloud but did not read it themselves. For the ordinary Catholic in earlier centuries, exposure to Scripture was passive. Scripture always has played an important role in the prayer life of the Catholic Church and its members. But for most Catholics, the Scripture they hear and read is not from the Bible. Many also recognize that basic prayers Catholics say, such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary, are scriptural. Practicing Catholics know they read and hear Scripture at every Mass. However, if asked how often they read Scripture, the answer would be different. Average Catholics asked today how often they read the Bible likely would say that they do not read the Bible regularly.