Why are Catholics forbidden to read the Bible?

I have heard that Catholics are forbidden to read the Bible. Why is this so?

Catholics are not forbidden to read the Bible; in fact, popes have been encouraging Bible reading for centuries. I have before me a copy of a 1914 Douay-Rheims Bible (the Catholic English translation of Scripture used up until this century). In the front is a page containing an indulgence granted on 13 December 1898 by Pope Leo XIII for all who read the Holy Gospels for at least fifteen minutes a day! Why would the pope grant an indulgence for reading something which he did not want anyone to read? He obviously granted the indulgence to encourage the reading of Sacred Scripture.

That same page contains a short letter from Pope Pius VI (1778) encouraging the reading of Scripture by the faithful in their own languages, and a prayer to the Holy Spirit meant to be said before reading the Bible!

Now I have talked to many Catholics who tell me that in their youth (before the Second Vatican Council) they were told by nuns or priests not to read the Bible because it would "confuse" them. I can only say to them that those priests or nuns were wrong. I'm sure they were sincere, but they were not expressing the wishes of the popes. So they unfortunately created the false impression that Bible reading was somehow "forbidden" for the average layperson, which some people still have to this day.