There's that weird hypocrisy in the bible where it encourages both turning the other cheek and bloody vengeance.
It's been a long time, but I recall a distinction always being made in Catholicism between the Old (ie bloody vengeance and a tendancy to smitin' and a smotin') and the New (turn the other cheek) testaments.
Can't quite remember the finer details and it may well just have been the teachers we had at the time, it was the early to mid 60's when things were in a state of flux in Catholicism worldwide, but there was a typical Catholic teachings convenience (maybe just a reticence on the part of our particular teachers) to try and avoid the details and contradictary implications of the older and somewhat more awkward stuff.
We were certainly taught that the important stuff was more the teachings of Jesus rather than the old Testament, which was always to be treated in a more circumspect way, and by the time we were 11 or so, increasingly taught or it was suggested that the Old was certainly not to be regarded as either historically accurate or a reliable indicator of the word of God.
We only really covered just a very few highly selective bits of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Joshua and Judges from the Old, enough to get by in a shallow Q&A/University Challenge/crossword answer type level, whereas most of the New was delved into in some detail and discussed.
I expect others may well have had different experiences though, largely dependent on the flavour of Catholicism and the evangelical fervour of their particular teachers or school...