Every Traditional Catholic should be reading a slavishly faithful, literal translation of the Vulgate.

That is to say, the Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision).

If you have a hard time understanding it, get a dictionary. The Bible is worth it.

I think making a Bible too "accessible" or modern is a bad thing. It makes it sound mundane, and it implies that reading the Bible isn't worth a lot of effort.

Think about it. When the priest reads the Epistle and Gospel in Latin, it gives them a sublime dignity.

What if the priest read a Superman comic in an ancient language. Wouldn't that seem foolish? Why? Because Superman isn't worth reading aloud in a somber, unchanging, dead language. And it isn't worth carefully translating every word. After all, it's just some silly comic dialogue between Superman and Lex Luthor.

But the words of Christ? Those are worth our careful, laborious study. If we have to look something up, great!

This dawned on me when I was studying Japanese and tried to read "The Hobbit" in Japanese. It occurred to me that my painstaking efforts to translate each sentence, to look up words I didn't know, etc. were wasted on a fantasy fiction story.

But it didn't seem like such a waste when I was reading/translating the New Testament in Japanese. Because the text itself was important.

The proof is in the pudding. How many Novus Ordo Catholics know and live the Scriptures? How many of them have the Word of God flowing through their veins? How can they, when they are scarcely recognized as Catholic by their daily lives? Yet they have A) modern translations of Scripture B) more Scripture in their Novus Ordo Mass and C) everything read in English.

I think that proves my point.

http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/Which-Bible-Should-You-Read

I don't mind those who prefer the Shakespearean-English original "Douay Rheims" -- as long as they're not dogmatic about it :)

I've actually seen a website that treats the Challoner Douay Rheims like most of us would treat the New American Bible.

There are all sorts of kooks on the Internet. Of that I am firmly convinced.

There's even a belief called "Rule 34" that anything you can imagine, there is porn of it somewhere on the Internet.

I think there should be a similar rule for Religion -- any belief you can imagine, there is SOMEONE on the Internet that honestly believes it and swears by it.

The RSV was approved by the Church too.  I do read it occasionally.  The DRV is still the best thing out there, though.