Never in the life of the Catholic Church have more people shown interest in biblical studies. For a variety of historical reasons the faithful have never been extensive readers of the Bible. Apart from the fact that the majority of our people were poor and often illiterate. Bible reading was at time regarded as hazardous to the faith. This was in part the result of the policy of the reformers in the sixteenth century who set the Scripture against the authority of the teaching Church. Texts of Scripture were commonly used to discredit the claims of the magisterium.