The Roman Catholic Church will confer with 400 experts Sept. 14-18 at a Vatican conference on Bible reading. According to Catholic News Service, experts from around the world, including an Episcopalian, a Pentecostal, Jewish and Islamic scholars, plan to brainstorm ideas on promoting the awareness of the importance of the Bible and biblical studies in the modern church.

The conference recognizes the 1965 decision by the Roman Catholic Church to invite members to read the Bible outside of Mass.

According to the Catholic Biblical Federation, only 3 percent of practicing Catholics read the Bible on a daily basis, with many Catholics lacking basic knowledge of the Scriptures.

Researcher George Barna's 2005 figures are based on a weekly assessment in which he found 23 percent of American Catholics read the Bible during a typical week. That compares to 45 percent of all Americans who say they read the Bible during a typical week. The numbers are higher for evangelicals (88 percent) and Protestants in general (59 percent).

In other Bible news, Family News in Focus reports that one group is promoting the Bible even further than into the lives of churchgoers. The National Council on Bible Curriculum for Public Schools wants a course on the Holy Scriptures taught in American classrooms. The proposal calls for the Bible to be taught as an elective and explored for its literary and historical merit.

According to the NCBCPS Web site the curriculum they propose has been adopted in 37 states, 312 school districts. An estimated 175,000 students have taken the course.

It may be a move to encourage personal Bible study that is driving a trend toward decreasing the availability of pew Bibles in churches. The text in the rack seems to be going the way of the disappearing hymnal. George Barna reports that pew Bible provisions are down 6 percent from five years ago. More likely than a push for disciples to BYOB (bring your own Bible) the trend eliminating pew Bibles reflects a move to implement more technology—including image magnification systems showing the Scripture on the screen.

Barna says technology usage in Protestant churches continues to climb—part of a five-year trend toward incorporating Web sites, large-screen projection systems, electronic funds transfer, satellite broadcasting technology and e-mail blasts for communication with the congregation.

Finally, an update on Hurricane Katrina refugees. The Chicago Sun-Times reports the call of one Christian leader for churches to "adopt" one family. While many congregations are doing larger scale outreach, the One Church, One Family campaign seems to be resonating with a more permanent response to the displaced people in need of more than a cot and an MRE.

Rev. George Clements of Chicago describes the difference between government help and the compassion of the Church succinctly, saying:

"The government is telling these people what it thinks they should do: 'Go to Utah!' Telling them. [While] the church is going to ask them, 'What is it that we can do?' And that is an incredibly different situation."