Dear Jonathan:

You have been sorely misinformed. The Catholic Church has been translating portions of the Bible into other languages LONG before the Reformation.

For example, portions of the Bible were translate into English by the Catholic Church in the 8th Century. By the time of the Reformation (really, the Revolution) the Church had, I think, some eleven English editions already translated of portions of the Bible.

The Douay-Rheims English translation of the Bible, by the way, was published by the Catholic Church BEFORE the King James Bible.

The Latin translation, was for its time, a "people's translation." Before then Greek was the primary language of scholarship and commerce. By the time of St. Jerome Greek had fallen mostly into disuse and Latin was the primary language of scholarship. Thus, St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin to make the Bible more accessible to the people. It was, in essence, the first people's translation.

Keep in mind, except for some monks and a few others, almost no one knew how to read. It would make no difference if there were many vernacular editions since the people couldn't read them anyway.

The Church, in her compassion and desire to get the Biblical message to the people, thus created artworks (paintings and statuary) that would tell the story of the Bible and the Saints. All the artwork in a traditional parish church constitutes one big picture book. That is what you do with those who cannot read; you give them a picture book until such time as they learn to read.

The Catholic Church has NEVER tried to keep the Bible from the people. That is one of those anti-Catholic bigotries that circulates.

As for focusing on many vernacular translations of the Bible, as mentioned, the Church had translated portions of the Bible into several languages going as far back as the 8th century.

But there are two reasons why a focus on a lot of vernacular translations did not happen until the around the 16th century.

1) before the invention of the printing press in 1430 Bibles were hand-written. The relative cost of a Bible, in today's dollars, would be in the millions of dollars. That is a little expensive to go around producing multiple editions.

2) few people could read their native language and thus producing a lot of vernacular editions would be pointless, especially for the cost and when the language most universal to education and those who could read was Latin.

After the invention of the printing press it became possible to produce books in masse and relatively cheaply. When this happened literacy began to increase and the cost of books was such that it became more affordable.

With that historical development the Church began to produce multiple vernacular editions.

This historical development also made the Reformation possible. Without the invention of the printing press, 100 years earlier, and the availability of cheaply produced Bibles (especially Bibles that had been adulterated by Martin Luther, et al. to fit their personal theology), and the increase in literacy, the Reformation may never have happened, or it may not have been as successful.

But, the Church did not neglect the people. It has always made sure the people had access to the Bible whether that be by..

• paintings and statues in the Churches that tell the story of the Bible like a picture-book to those who cannot read, to preaching the Bible from the pulpit
• reading the Bible in Mass (the typical Mass reads more Scripture passages from the Bible that most Protestant services and through out the reading cycle reads the entire Bible which Protestants do not generally do in their services)
• Bibles placed in monasteries that anyone had access to read, if they know how to read, kept in monasteries in a similar manner as a library
• translating to Latin when Latin became more in use and Greek went into disuse
• vernacular translations over the centuries (well before the Reformation)
• multiple vernacular translations when Bible became cheaper to produce and able to be mass produced with the printing press.

There has NEVER be a lack of access of the Bible to the people.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary