Pope: seminaries must teach Latin Mass

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I’ll agree that it is difficult, if not impossible, to pick up the cultural overlay that attends one’s mother tongue. The words “The Lord be with you,” has meaning for native speakers of English that “Dominus vobiscum” doesn’t have. However, Catholics routinely singer the Kyrie, which is Greek, with deep feeling. Probably most in the US prefer English, but Latin won’t be that hard if people apply themselves. And I assume that those who want to attend the Tridentine Mass will get those old books out and do a modicum of studying.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
We don’t have to know any Latin to attend Mass and follow along.
However, the goal of Vatican II was not to just have us follow along, but to participate more fully in the Mass. This is best done in the language of the people who are in attendance.

I have attended many Latin Masses over the past 10 years or so, and I use my missal. In fact, I followed the Mass on TV, Jan 1st, by Pope Benedict XVI, from Rome. It was in Latin. There is no way, I can understand and participate as fully as I do when the Mass is in English. Those who argue otherwise are grasping at straws.

I’ve seen the same people insist that the official language in the US should be English. Gee, why not Latin? 🤷
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The pope obviously disagrees with you. No grasping here. The Tridentine is the Mass of the saints, the tens of thousands of them.

“Following along” is not the goal - it’s just the beginning; the training so that you can eventually become completely absorbed spiritually in the entire mystical occurance.

It takes time; months, years, (not once in a while or “many in the last 10 years”). OH the Heaven on Earth that the Mass is SUPPOSED to be is in the Tridentine. The Heavenly beauty of the sound, smell and sights; the profound depth of the dozens of biblical prayers; the continuous dogmatic and doctrinal teachings of the Church in the prayers; all teach everyone everthing they need to know and give you a glimpse of heaven on earth.

If you study the prayers of the Tridentine, RCIA is unnecessary (and based on the heresy and new-age teaching that people are getting in MANY RCIA sessions, would be better off without)

If you spend enough time with the Tridentine - you will come to know what “fully participating in the Mass”. really means. It filled the seminaries for centuries, it filled the saints with devotion to it, it kept the world from the insanity we’re now experiencing, in the Church, in the Mass and in the world.

What do they know that you don’t know?.. The Tridentine.

When on the edge of a cliff, the only wise step is a giant step backward.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
There is no way, I can understand and participate as fully as I do when the Mass is in English. Those who argue otherwise are grasping at straws. Jim
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Thirty-six years ago, I was a young sailor in the Navy. I spent a month in Spain. The Spanish dragged their feet in implementing the NO so the Masses I attended were in Latin. I understood and was fully able to participate. Had the Masses been in Spanish, such would not be the case. My cathedral parish gets loads of French tourists during the summer. I’m sure they are fully able to participate in English.

I don’t believe I am grasping at straws. As incomprehensible as it may seem to you, believe it or not, there is this strange property of languages called “cognates”. Funny thing is that the more one read one’s missal as a child (whose minds are linguistic sponges) the more one recognized that just a whole bunch of English words have Latin roots. Couple that with strong vocabulary training in a Catholic high school and rest assured, I have never grasped at a linguistic straw - to this day I can and do listen to both the EF and OF in Latin on EWTN and have no problem understanding what is being said or if I were present in the congregation, being able to participate. Do you honestly think I didn’t/don’t know what “Introibo ad altare Dei” meant? (Introibo - introit - entrance. Ad - obviously to. Altare - altar. Dei, Deus, Deum - God. I figured that out as a kid). What about Pater Noster? Atta Unser? Faeder ure? Cognates abound in Indo-European languages for those who seek to open their ears.

This is the very same shibboleth that I hear over and over…no one understood Latin and did not participate fully. I beg to differ and no I am most definitively not grasping at straws.
 
I’m not even Catholic yet and I can say the entire Rosary (minus the Creed) in Latin. I’ve been to four TLM’s in my life and have had no problem understanding what is going on. Come on folks it’s not that hard!
 
I studied French in High School & Italian in College. As a result, I can pick up the general “gist” of most “romance” languages, including Latin when they are spoken. In the case of the Mass, I doubt I would have any trouble at all following along because our Parish has used Latin in many parts of the Mass during Lent and that, along with my language background, would enable me to follow along, even if I were going to Mass for the first time.

I have read many posts about the arguments for and against the Mass in Latin and I have to wonder about the those that oppose the Latin Mass. I find it hard to believe, if they are good Catholics, that they would no longer understand what was going on if the Mass were in Latin, or that they would not be able to participate if it were in Latin. Of course they can!! (And I find the suggestion that priests saying the Mass in Latin as “mimicking” to be rather offensive, and an insult to the clergy.)

So if the rejection of the Latin Mass isn’t truly one of participation, what is it? I don’t “get” this. I know Americans are famous for refusing to learn any other language, but I trust it is not THAT, so what is the real reason for the objection? I’ve never seen anyone express that, so far.
 
MelanieAnne,
its not a matter of whether we would or would not understand Latin, but rather, what do we understand better, Latin or our own native language?

I was raised in pre-Vatican II. I have attended the NO in Latin, at the Bennedictine Monastery, off and on, over the past 10 years.
I also attend Mass and Benediction at a Trappist monestary, where they say both liturgies in english. I understand and participate more fully in the english versions. At the Latin Mass, I must use a missal, at the english, I don’t need to.

I doubt that the average Catholic who attends Mass just on Sundays, would find himself participating more fully in the Latin Mass than he does at an english Mass.

Jim
 
Jim, I guess everyone has their experiences and the beliefs. Sure Mass in my native language is easy to understand, but were I to attend Mass in Spanish, I don’t feel that I would participate or understand the Mass any less. I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
 
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