... Catalyst ...

Take Catalyst (and Apache if you can) out of the equation and debug Locale::Maketext::Lexicon itself, start with

# assume filename - search path, open and return its contents
sub lexicon_get_ {
    my ( $class, $src, $caller, $lang ) = @_;
    $src = $class->lexicon_find( $src, $caller, $lang );
    defined $src or die 'next';

    require FileHandle;
    my $fh = FileHandle->new;
    $fh->open($src) or die "Cannot read $src (called by $caller): $!";
    binmode($fh);
    return <$fh>;
}
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