My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” So said St. Jerome, the great biblical scholar who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin in the fourth century. In that case, it is unfortunate many people reportedly know very little about Scripture and therefore little about Christ. Some recent surveys in this regard are disturbing.

The Bible Society, founded in 1804 to spread knowledge about the Scriptures, released a survey Feb. 7 that said three out of 10 British children have almost no understanding of the Bible. In a survey of 800 children, the majority of  boys and girls from the ages of 8 to 15 did not know that the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark and Jesus’ birth are rooted in the Bible. More than a third of them did not know that the stories of David and Goliath and the Good Samaritan come from the Bible. Sadly, their parents aren’t much more knowledgeable about the Bible than their children. Almost half of the 1,100 parents surveyed did not know that Noah’s Ark was a biblical story.

A few years ago, I baptized the baby girl of some friends whose older daughter I had baptized four years previously. The mother and I were chatting after the baptism and she told me how she had stopped going to church after the baptism of her first daughter. She said that it was not a conscious rejection of the faith, but just a falling away from the practice of going to Mass on Sunday out of laziness or just wanting to use that time on Sunday mornings to do other things.

This young mother said she received a rude awakening one day when her 4-year-old daughter received a necklace with a medal of the Blessed Mother holding the child Jesus. When her daughter saw the image on the medal, she exclaimed, “Look Mommy: It’s Pocahontas and her baby!”

 The mother said she realized immediately that it was time to go back to church, with her family, since apparently her daughter had no idea who Mary and Jesus were!

Over the centuries the mistaken stereotype developed that Bible reading was for Protestants, but less so for Catholics. That stereotype even resulted in the reference to the predominantly Protestant southern states in the U.S.A. as the “Bible Belt.”

Recent popes and the teaching of the Second Vatican Council have gone to great lengths to emphasize that Scripture study is necessary for Catholics, too.

On Sept. 30, 1943, the feast of St. Jerome, Pope Pius XII published an encyclical letter, Divino Afflante Spiritu (Inflamed by the Divine Spirit), on promoting biblical studies. In this encyclical, the pope said that “Bishops should endeavor daily to increase and perfect among the faithful committed to their care ... a greater knowledge of and love for the Sacred Books.”

Next year, Nov. 18, 2015, will mark the 50th anniversary of the dogmatic constitution of divine revelation, Dei Verbum (The Word of God), promulgated by Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council. The Holy Father wrote, “The church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.”

To help promote a greater knowledge and understanding of the Bible, I will be presenting “Bible Briefings with the Bishop” during the Sundays of Lent in March. These briefings on the Bible will take place in the Cathedral Atrium from 6:15 to 7:15 following the Sunday evening Mass (note exception: on Sunday, March 23, “Bible Briefings with the Bishop” will take place within context of the Springfield Deanery Revival at Christ the King Parish at 7 p.m.)

A briefing is defined as “an act or instance of giving precise instructions or essential information.” We all live in a busy world. We know we should read the Bible more, but often don’t make time to do so. A great resolution for Lent would be to spend an hour on Sunday evenings to receive and discuss some essential information on selected passages of the Bible, focusing on the Sunday Lenten sermons of the great Fathers of the Church, as compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Catena Aurea or Golden Chain, his great commentary on the Gospels. I pray that many of you will join us.

May God give us this grace. Amen.