《中英對照讀新聞》"Read Bible more!" Vatican tells Catholics梵蒂岡曉諭天主教徒「多讀聖經！」

◎ 魏國金

The Vatican told Roman Catholics to read the Bible more regularly instead of keeping the “good book” on the shelf gathering dust. “Unfortunately, we must acknowledge that there is still too little Bible in the lives of the faithful,” said Bishop Vincenzo Paglia.

教廷曉諭羅馬天主教徒要常常讀聖經，而非將這本「好書」放在架上惹塵埃。「遺憾的是，我們必須承認聖經在信徒的生活中，仍太微不足道，」文生佐．帕格理亞主教說。

Paglia said a recent survey of Catholics in Italy, Spain and France showed that only three percent of them read it every day. He said the survey showed that the overwhelming number of Catholics, some 80 percent, only heard the Bible when they went to Mass on Sunday.

帕格理亞表示，一份近期針對義大利、西班牙與法國的天主教徒進行的調查顯示，只有3%的信徒每天讀聖經。他說，該調查顯示，絕大多數、約達80%的天主教徒，只在週日望彌撒時聽聞聖經。

“Often the Bible is put in the privileged place in the home, which is very nice,” said Alexander M. Schweitzer, secretary-general of the Catholic Biblical Federation. “But no one reads it,” he said.

「通常聖經放在家中特別的地方，這非常好，」天主教世界聖經協會秘書長亞歷山大．史懷澤爾說。「不過沒人讀它」，他也表示。

Paglia said the study showed that some 40 percent of Catholics surveyed believed that St Paul wrote one of the gospels and that 26 percent believed that St Peter had also written one of the gospels. In fact, St Paul and St Peter wrote letters, known as epistles, to the early Christians and they are found in the Bible but the four gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

帕格理亞說，調查顯示，接受調查的天主教徒40%相信聖保羅寫下其中一章福音書，26%相信聖彼得也寫了一章福音書。事實上，聖保羅與聖彼得是寫信給初代基督徒，也就是廣為人知的使徒書信，它們可在聖經中找到，但四福音書是由馬太、馬可、路加與約翰所撰。

新聞辭典

Catholic：大寫指天主教的、天主教徒。Protestant：新教的、新教徒。Christian：則包含上述兩者，泛指基督徒。

overwhelm：動詞，征服、壓倒。overwhelming為形容詞，勢無可擋、壓倒性的意思，比如，an overwhelming majority：壓倒性的多數。overwhelmed亦是形容詞，主詞為人，指情感上受極度震撼或體力上不勝負荷。

privilege：當名詞時指特權、特別待遇，或殊榮，如：It was a privilege to know her.（認識她是一項榮幸。）privileged為形容詞，指特權的、免責權的，the privileged class：特權階級。