What is the Roman Catholic interpretation of John 3:16? For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
  whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  (John 3:16, NIV)


What is the Roman Catholic way of interpreting John 3:16, the most popular verse in the Bible? What does the word "perish" mean?
I can't answer for the Catholic interpretation of Perish in John 3:16, but I can give you the Catholic approach to reading the Bible and my opinion of that.  It's all pretty obvious and doesn't help, but should shed light on why this is an unanswerable (yet good) question.
The four senses of scripture

Literal
John 3:16 literally means &quot;shall not perish&quot;, the same way Jesus said to Peter later in the Book that the disciple whom He loved might live until He returns.

Moral
John 3:16 instructs the faithful just how much God the Father loves His children. If you love someone you will make the ultimate sacrifice for them.

Metaphorical
Perish could mean die a spiritual death as easily as it means die a physical death.  To die in ones sins, would be a metaphorical interpretation of the word perish.

Eternal
Here's where perish means, suffer the fire of hell and that would be true too.


So, there's 4 legitimate ways of looking at the same piece of scripture neither of which negate the other, neither of which are authoritative.