A new blogger http://bogners.typepad.com/church/2003/10/whats_th_ebig_d.html asks, “Why is it that some Catholics enjoy Latin so much?”:
“I was born in 1966 and so grew up in the post-Vatican 2 church. I went to public school, and we didn’t learn any foreign languages there. And there was no Latin instruction in CCD. So I don’t know a word of Latin. And when Latin is used at Mass, I find myself getting annoyed at not being able to understand, to participate (and I do not go to Mass to be a spectator). It might as well be Arabic, Russian or Chinese. Apart from nostalgia, what’s the attraction? At my former parish we did some statistics and learned the median age was around 37, so half of the people there were essentially born after Vatican 2. If all this sounds like ranting, that’s probably a fair analysis.”
As someone also born in 1966, I think that’s a fair question. Perhaps the Catholic Church can answer it for us:
“For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure until the end of time… of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non-vernacular.” – Pope Pius XI, Officiorum Omnium
Latin therefore an important sign of the unity of the Church, the immutability of Her doctrine, and the special consecration of Her worship.
“The use of the Latin language prevailing in a great part of the Church affords at once an imposing sign of unity and an effective safeguard against the corruption of true doctrine.” – Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei
Much mischief has been done by the vernacular liturgy because of the ambiguity and evolving meanings of certain words. Ecclesiastical Latin, by contrast, is a “dead” language whose definitions are not so easily manipulated. Latin is therefore an important aid to maintaining liturgical orthodoxy.
Blessed John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council, zealously promoted Latin in http://www.unavoce.org/veterumsapientia.htm his encyclical Veterum Sapientia:
“Of its very nature Latin is most suitable for promoting every form of culture among peoples. It gives rise to no jealousies. It does not favor any one nation, but presents itself with equal impartiality to all and is equally acceptable to all. Nor must we overlook the characteristic nobility of Latin’s formal structure. Its ‘concise, varied and harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity’ makes for singular clarity and impressiveness of expression.
For these reasons the Apostolic See has always been at pains to preserve Latin, deeming it worthy of being used in the exercise of her teaching authority ‘as the splendid vesture of her heavenly doctrine and sacred laws.’ She further requires her sacred minis ers to use it, for by so doing they are the better able, wherever they may be, to acquaint themselves with the mind of the Holy See on any matter, and communicate the more easily with Rome and with one another.
Thus the ‘knowledge and use of this language,’ so intimately bound up with the Church’s life, ‘is important not so much on cultural or literary grounds, as for religious reasons.’ These are the words of Our Predecessor Pius XI, who conducted a scientific inquiry into this whole subject, and indicated three qualities of the Latin language which harmonize to a remarkable degree with the Church’s nature. ‘For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure to the end of time . . of its very nature requires a language which is universal, immutable, and non vernacular.’…
Furthermore, the Church’s language must be not only universal but also immutable. Modern languages are liable to change, and no single one of them is superior to the others in authority. Thus if the truths of the Catholic Church were entrusted to an unspecified number of them, the meaning of these truths, varied as they are, would not be manifested to everyone with sufficient clarity and precision. There would, moreover, be no language which could serve as a common and constant norm by which to gauge the exact meaning of other renderings.
But Latin is indeed such a language. It is set and unchanging. it has long since ceased to be affected by those alterations in the meaning of words which are the normal result of daily, popular use. Certain Latin words, it is true, acquired new meanings as Christian teaching developed and needed to be explained and defended, but these new meanings have long since become accepted and firmly established.
Finally, the Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular. In addition, the Latin language ‘can be called truly catholic.’ It has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and must be esteemed ‘a treasure . . . of incomparable worth.’ It is a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Churchs teaching. It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity.”
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