Rev. Peter M. J. Stravinskas

The Catholic Church and the Bible

Revised Edition

IGNATIUS PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO

New Testament selections in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament, © 1986 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission; Old Testament selections are taken from the New American Bible, © 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (Books 1 Samuel to 2 Maccabees © 1969). All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible with Revised New Testament may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Excerpts from the Order of the Mass are taken from the English translation of the Roman Missal, © 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973 by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission. The author is also grateful for permission to reprint brief excerpts from Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, © 1975 by Costello Publishing Company, Inc., and Rev. Austin Flannery, O.P., and from The Jerome Biblical Commentary, © 1968 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Much of the material in Chapter II first appeared in The Church after the Council: A Primer for Adults, © 1975 by Alba House. Substantial portions of Chapter III appeared in a 1986 series on the Mass in the National Catholic Register.

First edition © 1987

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division

Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

All rights reserved

Cover design by Riz Boncan Marsella

Second, revised edition

Printed in 1996 Ignatius Press

ISBN 978-0-89870-588-1

Library of Congress catalogue number: 96–83640

CONTENTS

I The Word of the Lord

II The Church’s Scriptures

III A Biblical Theology of the Mass

IV Mass Prayers; Biblical Prayers

V “What About …?”

appendices

A: Catholic Biblical Resources

B: Seven Principles Essential to Fundamentalism

To the Most Reverend

Paul A. Baltakis, O.F.M.,

Bishop for the Spiritual Assistance

of Lithuanian Catholics of the Diaspora,

On the Occasion

of the 600th Anniversary

of the Christianization of Lithuania:

The Lithuanian nation was the last

in Europe to accept the Word of God;

may she also be the last to relinquish it.

Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to

Mrs. Sandra Lindstrand

Mr. Walter Petrovitz

Mrs. Loretta Stukas

for their assistance in the careful

preparation of the manuscript and,

more important, for their friendship

and support in so many other ways.

And, for the revised edition,

my deepest gratitude to

the soon-to-be cleric

for the Diocese of Fall River,

Thomas Kocik

I

The Word of the Lord

One of the most persistent and pernicious images of the Church’s relationship with the Scriptures is that of the Bible chained to a desk in a medieval library. The image is correct, but the interpretation is not. For critics of the Church, this picture says it all: The Church “chains down” the Word of God both literally and figuratively, placing herself above the Scriptures and at the same time restricting access ...