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Holland
Guest
Just a quick question. Do priests have to learn latin as part of their education?
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PaixGioiaAmor
Guest
Generally speaking, no.
Whether it is a requirement or not in some specific seminaries I do not know. It is not the norm.
Whether it is a requirement or not in some specific seminaries I do not know. It is not the norm.
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Caesar
Guest
Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have said that education in Latin is necessary for seminarians. Most seminaries in the west choose not listen to that.
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Windmill
Guest
Most that I know who have learned Latin have done so on their own initiative. I wonder if this will change with the release of hte MP. Seminarians may start requesting this so they can say Mass in Latin.
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tee_eff_em
Guest
They are supposed to be.
tee
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NewUlm1976_2000
Guest
I believe most seminaries require at least some basics in Latin. Just like other college courses, it may or may not stay around depending on how often they need to use it, which could be not very often depending on their ministries.
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chris_molter
Guest
Obviously it’s not a requirement in the Byzantine, Melkite, or other Eastern Catholic Churches, although they have their OWN language requirements 
Most of the seminaries and religious orders I’ve looked at require at least a couple years of study in Latin, along with Greek and sometimes Hebrew and/or Aramaic.
Most of the seminaries and religious orders I’ve looked at require at least a couple years of study in Latin, along with Greek and sometimes Hebrew and/or Aramaic.
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yannick
Guest
How can you be a priest of a particular rite and not know the language??? This is just wrong.
As it as been mention most seminaries in the west have decided not to listen to popes and canon law. I have visited many seminary in African Continent (french speaking countries only) all learned latin as part of their curriculum (greek and hebrew are electives).
With the MP and the apparent return to tradition (not orthodoxy, since we never left orthodoxy right?) priests will surely learn. Members of the laity are themselves more and more interested in learning the language, after all it is par excellence the language of liturgy, the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE ROMAN RITE. Vernacular use were suppose to be limited to specific circonstances such as in mission lands…
Yannick
God bless the Pope
As it as been mention most seminaries in the west have decided not to listen to popes and canon law. I have visited many seminary in African Continent (french speaking countries only) all learned latin as part of their curriculum (greek and hebrew are electives).
With the MP and the apparent return to tradition (not orthodoxy, since we never left orthodoxy right?) priests will surely learn. Members of the laity are themselves more and more interested in learning the language, after all it is par excellence the language of liturgy, the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE ROMAN RITE. Vernacular use were suppose to be limited to specific circonstances such as in mission lands…
Yannick
God bless the Pope
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tee_eff_em
Guest
PaixGioiaAmor, Caesar, and yannick all indicate that “most” seminaries in the west do not teach Latin.
While I cannot refute their empirical knowledge, I must hang my hat with NewUlm1976_2000 and chris molter: The seminaries I am familiar with all have Latin requirements. (Whether the course turns out a “well versed” man or whether there are ways to opt out and avoid it, I cannot say)
tee
While I cannot refute their empirical knowledge, I must hang my hat with NewUlm1976_2000 and chris molter: The seminaries I am familiar with all have Latin requirements. (Whether the course turns out a “well versed” man or whether there are ways to opt out and avoid it, I cannot say)
tee
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lak611
Guest
From the website of St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio:
Latin is optional. My pastor, who is in his early 40’s, and the associate priest, who is in his early 30’s, never took Latin.
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Holland
Guest
I wonder if the Bishops could require the priests in their Diocese learn latin? I know that may be a hardship in a lot of places with a shortage of priests. I just wonder what percentage of the priests out there could actually say a Latin Mass?
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Semper_Fi_1
Guest
Our priests should know Latin at the very least, and a couple of other languages as well to help on missionary trips. A lot of priests from our Archdiocese participate in exchange programs where priests will transfer jurisdictions and go help out for a year or two in South America to learn Spanish and vice-versa.
My Pastor knows English, German (his native language), Latin & Spanish (he celebrates the Mass in all of these aforementioned languages). I believe he is working on Hebrew and one of the local Greek-Catholic priests is instructing him in Greek.
My Pastor knows English, German (his native language), Latin & Spanish (he celebrates the Mass in all of these aforementioned languages). I believe he is working on Hebrew and one of the local Greek-Catholic priests is instructing him in Greek.
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Semper_Fi_1
Guest
Could you provide a citation for this?
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johnnykins
Guest
If memory serves, before the VII reforms 7 years of Latin was the seminary requirement. Of course many men had more than that. My father had 10 years of Latin and 4 of Greek - just from Catholic schools and a Catholic college. My mother, who attended city schools and a state college, had 8 years of Latin (not to mention 8 years of French).
Times have changed.
Times have changed.
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Brendan
Guest
Per +Benedicts Apostolic Exhortation SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS, it is required that seminarians not only learn sufficent Latin to celebrate the Mass in Latin, but that they should keep up their Latin skills ongoingly.
So if Seminaries haven’t been requiring Latin, they will be shortly.
( Sacred Heart in Detroit does, one of last year’s ‘graduates’ Baptized our daughter, it was done as part of a Latin N.O. Mass and the Latin form was used for the Baptism.)
So if Seminaries haven’t been requiring Latin, they will be shortly.
( Sacred Heart in Detroit does, one of last year’s ‘graduates’ Baptized our daughter, it was done as part of a Latin N.O. Mass and the Latin form was used for the Baptism.)
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Brendan
Guest
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS
Link Here
The verb tenses in (authoritative) Latin for the bolded indicate an on going\continuting action, that the seminarians should be ongoingly able to understand and celebrate the Mass in Latin.
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Chatter163
Guest
When the Latin Liturgy Association did their survey a while back on this matter, it was found that approximately one-third of American seminaries required a semester (a few two) two of Latin; one third offered an option of a semester or two, and remaining third offered no Latin at all.
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jc-servant
Guest
All of the priests that I know including the young ones have been taught some Latin. I believe it is pretty easy to have someone not speak it or understand it well if they do not easily learn a 2nd language. We have to remember that some of our priests are entering seminary later in life when it is less easy to pick up a foreign language for the 1st time. I think it is especially hard to maintain language fluency when it is not heard/spoken on a daily basis in conversation or media. Most of our priests are extremely busy ministering to populations that are not exactly building their Latin skills by conversing in Latin.
I would rather have a man choose the priestly vocation than not choose it. This holds true even if he was incapable of ever speaking Latin (or whatever 2nd language) fluently. They can always read the Latin phonetically for a liturgy if need be. My pastor has to fill in at Spanish mass occasionally and that is what he does. He definitely is not even conversational in Spanish.
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jc-servant
Guest
So would you decline to have a man as a priest who cannot gain fluency in a 2nd language? I can think of a long list of other things that I believe are more important to living that vocation well. If a priest wants to try to learn more languages, then I would hope that parishioners with the ability/knowledge/finances would offer to help him out.
I think it is pretty easy for us to sit around and decide what a priest should cram into his already limited “spare” time. So far as I know there is no country in the world where Latin is spoken as the main language by the entire population, so picking it up through immersion on an exchange is not gonna happen. Spanish is much more widely heard and more easily learned by comparison.
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JimR-OCDS
Guest
He could require it for seminarians, but ordained priest, I don’t think he could. What would he do, fire them?
Jim
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