flock of Jesus Christ, but also not to suffer any attempt to defile or
corrupt it, either on the part of those who impiously and openly
assail the Scriptures, or of those who are led astray into fallacious
and imprudent novelties.”
22
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Catholic Church presently grants
those faithful who devoutly read the Scriptures for up to thirty minutes in
any given day a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.
The Fathers
Papias (c. 60-130 AD) [Fragment in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History
3, 39, 15]
“And the Presbyter said this also: ‘When Mark became the interpreter of
Peter, he wrote down accurately whatever he remembered, though not in
order, of the words and deeds of the Lord. He was neither hearer nor
follower of the Lord; but such he was afterwards, as I say, of Peter, who
had no intention of giving a connected account of the sayings of the Lord,
but adapted his instructions as was necessary. Mark, then, made no
mistake, but wrote things down as he remembered them; and he made it his
concern to omit nothing that he had heard nor to falsify anything therein’.”
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3, 11, 7-8 (c. 180 AD)
“There is such certainty surrounding the Gospels that the heretics
themselves bear witness to them; and starting from the Gospels, each
one of them attempts to establish his own doctrine … Just as there
are four regions of the world in which we live, and four universal
winds, and since the Church is disseminated over all the earth, and
the pillar and mainstay of the Church is the Gospel, the breath of life,
it is fitting that she have four pillars…”
22
Providentissimus Deus, Introductory.
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