{"id":193361,"date":"2026-03-03T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=193361&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=193361"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:37:29","slug":"ask-a-priest-why-didnt-they-teach-us-the-bible-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-didnt-they-teach-us-the-bible-in-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask a Priest: &#8220;Why Didn\u2019t They Teach Us the Bible in School?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"193361\" class=\"elementor elementor-193361\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div data-particle_enable=\"false\" data-particle-mobile-disabled=\"false\" class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-881dae8 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"881dae8\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5186be0e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5186be0e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<blockquote><address>Q: Many non-Catholics can recite Bible verses by memory and what book they came from. Why did the Catholic Church not teach the Bible? I went to Catholic grade school and never was taught the Bible or encouraged to study it. \u2014 Patricia<\/address><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: If your grade school didn&#8217;t teach the Bible, that is unfortunate. Only the school knows why it didn\u2019t do so.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, your experience wasn&#8217;t unusual. Many Catholics of an earlier generation weren\u2019t encouraged to read or study Scripture at home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This isn&#8217;t because the Church didn&#8217;t &#8220;teach the Bible.&#8221; Go online or go into a seminary library and you&#8217;ll find lots of Bible commentaries, from the Church Fathers onward.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So why wasn&#8217;t the Bible a bigger part of Catholic daily life?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reasons are varied.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For one, after the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, some Catholics weren&#8217;t keen on promoting private reading of the Bible since so many Protestants misinterpreted or twisted so many things in Scripture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, Catholics already heard Scripture at every Mass. Ideally, the homilies should have helped people understand Scripture better. That might or might not have been everyone&#8217;s experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the Second Vatican Council there has been more emphasis on getting laypeople to read Scripture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bible study groups are common in parishes, and Catholic publishing has churned out lots of biblical commentaries, etc., over the past 40 years or so. Scholars such as Scott Hahn and clergy such as Father Mike Schmitz have done a lot to revive and feed popular interest in Scripture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tide has turned, in other words.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, it didn&#8217;t come soon enough for you during your childhood.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nevertheless, there are lots of resources if you want to pursue your study of Scripture. Two suggestions would be Jeff Cavins\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ascensionpress.com\/collections\/the-bible-timeline-the-story-of-salvation\">Bible Timeline<\/a> series and Father Schmitz\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL0QzUlsjD3k3UnRBLz_Y3DYQGv-mQAqy0\">Bible in a Year<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s never too late to learn about the inspired Word of God.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Many non-Catholics can recite Bible verses by memory and what book they came from. Why did the Catholic Church not teach the Bible? I went to Catholic grade school [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":157773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3718],"tags":[3861,5395,3376],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-193361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-a-priest","tag-bible","tag-mcilmail","tag-priests"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ask a Priest: &quot;Why Didn\u2019t They Teach Us the Bible in School?&quot; - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-didnt-they-teach-us-the-bible-in-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask a Priest: &quot;Why Didn\u2019t They Teach Us the Bible in School?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q: Many non-Catholics can recite Bible verses by memory and what book they came from. 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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith &amp; Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193361"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=193361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}