Faith and Language

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Christphr

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Hello All,
The mass in Latin is surely closer to the meaning of our faith because it is the actual language of the church and what she teaches.

English is essentially a protestant, secular, and yes, a anti-Catholic language. Surely, speaking, thinking, and living in such a language is a detriment to the faith. Spanish and the languages of the Catholic countries are closer to the language of the Church.

What can we in the Anglo sphere do as individuals in our daily lives? What should the Church do?
 
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Language is a way of communicating. It can’t be Protestant or Catholic. Sure, Latin sounds beautiful and is the root of many European languages, but the message of the Bible for example is the same no matter what language it is in, in my opinion.
 
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Actually Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek would be superior to Latin, which is essentially a dead language to boot. Latin should actually be a last choice IMO since its no one’s vernacular.
 
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Christphr said:
English is essentially a protestant, secular, and yes, a anti-Catholic language.
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Look at it from the historical angle. Latin was a language of pagans. It was already an old language when the Christian Church came into being. English, on the contrary, was at first spoken and written exclusively by Catholics. It was only centuries later that the first English-speaking Protestants appeared.
 
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fhansen said:
Latin, which is essentially dead language to boot.
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This also has advantages. Dead lanfuages don’t change over time. Meaning of each word stays same and as such so does the message. There is reason why Latin is language of Roman Catholic Church. After all, Vatican II states following:
“Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites”(§ 1).

But it isn’t true that English is Protestant or Spanish is more Catholic either. It isn’t true that Latin is more Catholic either… in the end wasn’t Latin also language of pagan Rome?

Language is language. It is used to express ourselves and that’s that. Languages aren’t irreverent, reverent, sacrilegious, holy or heretical by themselves ever.
 
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Christphr said:
English is essentially a protestant, secular, and yes, a anti-Catholic language. Surely, speaking, thinking, and living in such a language is a detriment to the faith.
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You’ve got the English and American saints sweating in heaven now lol
 
Your premise is flawed. There is nothing wrong with English, nor any other language that Catholics speak.

I am a cleric, ordained for 16 years. If I could go back to the seminary and change one thing I studied it would be Greek.

The Biblical languages of Koine Greek and Hebrew are far more useful in ministry than Latin.

One of the greatest blessings from Vatican II was the liturgy being translated into the vernacular of the people.

And, by the way, the most popular language among all Catholics (by far) is Spanish.

Deacon Christopher
 
Christphr said:
The mass in Latin is surely closer to the meaning of our faith because it is the actual language of the church and what she teaches.

English is essentially a protestant, secular, and yes, a anti-Catholic language. Surely, speaking, thinking, and living in such a language is a detriment to the faith. Spanish and the languages of the Catholic countries are closer to the language of the Church.
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What makes English an “anti-Catholic” language - the fact that most of its speakers are Protestant? But Greek and Latin were spoken by pagans for a millennium when the Church wrote the Bible in Greek.
 
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Christphr said:
Hello All,
The mass in Latin is surely closer to the meaning of our faith because it is the actual language of the church and what she teaches.

English is essentially a protestant, secular, and yes, a anti-Catholic language. Surely, speaking, thinking, and living in such a language is a detriment to the faith. Spanish and the languages of the Catholic countries are closer to the language of the Church.

What can we in the Anglo sphere do as individuals in our daily lives? What should the Church do?
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I find your premise bizarre. Since neither Luther nor Calvin spoke English, and the Reformation was primarily driven on the European continent, I wonder why you tie English to Protestantism. Yes, Henry VIII broke with Rome, but from a European perspective he wasn’t the focus. Your premise does violence to centuries of faithful Catholics who spoke English, kept the faith under difficult circumstances, and implies that English speakers are by dint of their language, 2 heartbeats away from betraying the Faith. This is the strangest justification for the Latin Mass I’ve ever seen.
 
Pitcairn17 said:
Yes, Henry VIII broke with Rome, but from a European perspective he wasn’t the focus.
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Also, Anglicanism was at first only the rejection of the Pope, but keeping all the deposit of faith, something like the Eastern Orthodox. It became Protestant only decades/centuries later.
 
You forgot the i in your name in the little picture.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.) <<see, no i
 
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Yes!

I think, though, that @annad347 was pointing out the discrepancy between the OP’s user name (Christphr) and profile picture (Chrstphr) 😆
 
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