I just got my Douay-Reims N.T. from eBay; I carry it everywhere.

/St. George of Hyperlink ✞

The best modern-English translation of the Bible duly approved by Mother Church is the English Standard Version-Catholic Edition (ESV-CE). It is not widely published and I've only seen it sold through one vendor here in the USA.

No, really, I do know, and I am right.

The ESV stems from Metzger's original RSV (the origin of the RSV-CE, as recommended in the article), and the ESV-CE is the "Catholicized" version of the ESV (just as the RSV-CE is the "Catholicized" version of the RSV). While the RSV is very good about abstaining from theological bias, it is not rigorously accurate as is the ESV, whose translators have also striven to remain theologically neutral.

Please, before becoming argumentative, please consider carefully exactly what I wrote: modern English, and "translation", not "version".

For whatever it may be worth, please allow me to add that I went through a very long "Protestant-like" phase wherein I relied very heavily on "Scripture alone", so I have examined Holy Scripture far more than most Catholics (or Protestants, for that matter). I own dozens of English translations as well as modern reprints of some of the ancient manuscripts.

These are the five translations that grace my at-hand study shelf:
Douay-Rheims (Haydock version)
ESV-CE
Knox
KJV (E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible version)
Moffatt

(Please, no snide remarks; examination makes self-evident that Bishop Challoner really did "borrow" quite heavily from the KJV. Anyone well-versed [pun intended] in the true faith can properly pick up and use a "Protestant" bible without it burning their hands, and I find it particularly endearing to quote a Protestant bible to a Protestant whilst discreetly pointing out their shortcomings in faith and understanding.)

And, finally, for the love of God, do not ever use any NIV for reading or study; it is an abomination from the abyss of Hell.