What religious text is used in Catholicism?

Answer 1

The Bishops of each country authorize specific translations in the local vernacular.

English speaking Catholics in the United States currently use the New American Bible Revised Edition ("NABRE"). The readings at mass are from this translation.

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Catholic AnswerThe Catholic Church uses the Sacred Scripture as defined at the several councils beginning in the late fourth century. For her Old Testament canon, she uses the same Bible that Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, and His Apostles used, the Septuagint, which was translated by the Jews into Greek in the fourth century B.C. For the New Testament she uses the Koine Greek translation as received by the Church.

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from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994

IV. The Canon of Scripture

120. It was by the apostolic Tradition that the church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. (Cf. Dei Verbum 8§ 3) This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New. (Cf. Denzinger-Schonmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum{1965})

The Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Ester, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hose4a, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

The New Testament: the Gospels according toMatthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, andJude, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).

Answer 2

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Catholic AnswerThe primary religious text for the Catholic Church is the Word of God:

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from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely: (Cf. Heb1:1-3)

You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time. (St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 103, 4, 1: J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina {Paris: 1841-1855} 37, 1378; cf. Ps 104; Jn 1:1)

103 For this reason, the church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. (1 Thess 2:13; cf. Dei Verbum 24.)

Answer 3

Catholic AnswerThe New Vulgate is the official Bible of the Catholic Church, it is in Latin. Any Bible that contains an imprinimatur and a nihil obstat is approved by the Church for private use (those are official declarations that The Bible translation you are reading, and any notes in it are free from error and that the Bible translation itself is accurate; in English, this would include the Douay-Rheims, the Jerusalem and New Jerusalem, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, the New American Bible, etc. The lectionary is a book which contains all the Bible readings used at Mass, it is in several volumes and covers most of the Bible, although not all.