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The InterVIEW

Understanding Scripture enriches Mass experience

A regular feature of The Catholic New World, The InterVIEW is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today's Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

Pauline Viviano, assistant professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago, was honored with the 2008 Chicago Medallion for Excellence in Catechesis at the Catechetical Ministries Awards Banquet May 6 in recognition of her dedicated and long-standing commitment to adult catechesis and faith formation in the field of biblical studies.

Since 1983, Viviano has given more than 150 talks and multi-week courses in Chicago- area parishes on Bible-related topics, been significantly involved in the Chicago Catholic Scripture School and taught in the combined lay ministry and diaconate training programs of the Archdiocese of Chicago. She also has led weeklong workshops on Bible-related topics at various universities and participated in diocesan lay ministry training programs in Arkansas, Wisconsin and elsewhere.

The Chicago Medallion for Excellence in Catechesis has been awarded eight times since it was created in 1992.

The May 6 banquet also honored Resurrectionist Father Michael Osuch, pastor of St. Hyacinth, with a special Polish Youth Ministry Award for his work with Polish young people. Also recognized were seven people with Archdiocesan Catechetical Ministries Awards and 130 people with Parish Catechetical Ministries Awards. (See www.catechesis-chicago.org for a complete list of awardees.)

Viviano, has spent more than 25 years educating laypeople about the Bible, took time before the banquet to answer some questions from Catholic New World assistant editor Michelle Martin.

Catholic New World: Why have you dedicated so much of your time to teaching adults about Scripture?

Pauline Viviano: The Second Vatican Council encouraged laypeople to read the Scriptures and after participating in various programs, such as Christ Renews His Parish, many laypeople began to seek out information on Scripture or joined Bible study groups.

Forty years ago there was little biblical study available for the laity in a Catholic setting, but some parishes began to invite speakers to talk about Scripture. I was one of those invited and when I first lectured in a parish I was struck by how hungry for knowledge the “people in the pew” were, and I responded to that hunger. More and more parishes have Bible study groups today, but it is difficult to understand the Bible without knowing about the ancient Near-Eastern world out of which the Old Testament came and knowing about the Greco-Roman world for the New Testament.

It is so easy to distort what the Bible has to say when one takes the biblical text out of its historical and literary context. With my background in Scripture I can help the laity to open up the biblical text so that they can better understand it and use it in enhancing their faith.

CNW: Is the perception that Catholics are more ignorant of the Bible than Protestants true?

Viviano: [Martin] Luther’s rallying cry of “sola Scriptura” (Scripture alone) helped to give the Bible prominence in the Protestant tradition and thus it has played a more central role in the formation of the faith of Protestants than for post-Reformation Catholics. As a matter of course, many Protestant churches have several Bible study groups that meet frequently.

For most of the past century Catholic biblical scholarship lagged behind Protestant biblical scholarship and lay Catholics were not encouraged to read the Bible. Though Scripture was read at Mass, Catholics were exposed only to a relatively small percentage of the biblical text. For these reasons Catholics are perceived to be more ignorant of the Bible than Protestants.

The situation began to change with the publication of [Pope] Pius XII’s “Divino Afflante Spiritu” (1943) which opened up contemporary biblical interpretation for Catholic biblical scholars. After Vatican II Catholics were encouraged to read and study the Bible, and with the reforms of the liturgy far more Scripture is read at Mass; nearly the entire Bible is read on Sundays over a three-year period. I think that Catholics are slowly catching up to Protestants in knowledge of Scripture.

In the Archdiocese, the Chicago Catholic Biblical School, run by the Office of Catechesis, provides a great opportunity for Catholics to study Scripture and I would encourage those interested in Bible study to join in this program (see www.catechesis- chicago.org).

I would like to make two further observations. First, the youth in America today do not know much about the Bible for it is not being taught in the schools. Even though when I was a child we rarely read the Bible in school, we were taught the basic stories of the Bible and so were familiar with its main characters.

The same cannot be said today. This is a disconcerting situation given the prominence and importance of the Bible in Western culture.

A second observation is that just because someone can quote chapter and verse of Scripture does not mean that he or she understands what the Bible says. Memorization of biblical verses does not constitute knowledge of Scripture.

It is far better to understand the message of a passage of Scripture in context than to be able to pull verses out of context and link them together as if that is what the Bible says. It is too easy to distort the meaning of the biblical text by quoting it out of its historical and literary context.

CNW: What can the average Catholic gain from more understanding of the Bible?

Viviano: A greater knowledge of Scripture would help Catholics to be better grounded in their faith. The Old Testament shaped how the early church understood Jesus and it was used to explain who Jesus was and the salvation that was accomplished in his death and resurrection in the preaching of the early church and in writing the New Testament.

The Bible is our foundational document; it is authoritative. We cannot understand our beliefs and our traditions unless we know Scripture. The more we know of Scripture the richer our participation in the Eucharist becomes. Not only will we be drawn to deeper reflection on the readings of Mass, but so much of our liturgy is informed by images taken from Scripture that the more we know, the greater will be our appreciation of the liturgy.

CNW: What’s your favorite book of the Bible?

Viviano: I have no one favorite book of the Bible. Different books speak to me at different times; it depends on various factors, such as what I am going through in my life or the in-depth study that I have done of the book.

The books I come back to regularly are Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, Job and the Gospel of John. The creation stories provide a great source for reflecting on who God is and who we are. The stories of the ancestors in Genesis are just some of the greatest stories ever told and I never tire of coming back to Abraham and his journey in faith or being both shocked and amused by the antics of Jacob.

Though Jeremiah’s message of the unleashing of God’s wrath is difficult to hear, I am drawn to his passion and strength of character.

Ecclesiastes gets me to look at the emptiness of life and to find meaning in the enjoyment of the present moment, and Job confronts me with the great mystery of suffering. I find in John’s Gospel an endless source of reflection upon the mystery of who Jesus is and what that means for me as a Christian.