VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a time when young people spend so much time in "digital environments," members of the Catholic Biblical Federation need to ask how they are fulfilling the Second Vatican Council's mandate to give everyone access to the Bible, Pope Leo XIV said.

"What does 'easy access to Sacred Scripture' mean in our time? How can we facilitate this encounter for those who have never heard the Word of God or whose cultures remain untouched by the Gospel?" the pope asked members of the federation's steering committee and its regional representatives.

Pope Leo welcomed the group to the Apostolic Palace Nov. 17, expressing particular concern for people who "find themselves in cultural spaces where the Gospel is unfamiliar or distorted by particular interests."

At the end of the audience, Mary Sperry, associate director of the U.S. bishops' Office for the Biblical Apostolate, presented Pope Leo with two large white binders. They contained a preview copy of The Catholic American Bible, slated for publication in 2027. 

Meeting on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, "Dei Verbum," Pope Leo asked members of the group to reflect on how they individually and as a federation respond to the call "to hear the Word of God with reverence and to proclaim it with faith."

"The church draws life not from herself but from the Gospel," he said. "From the Gospel she continually rediscovers the direction for her journey, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who teaches all things and reminds us of everything the Son has said."

A key part of that, he said, is helping everyone have access to a Bible so they can "encounter the God who speaks, shares his love and draws us into the fullness of life."

Translations of the Bible, which the federation promotes, are essential for that, he said, but so are initiatives like encouraging "lectio divina," a prayerful reading of Scripture.

"Ultimately," Pope Leo told federation members, "your mission is to become 'living letters … written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God,' bearing witness to the primacy of God's Word over the many voices that fill our world."