C
Claudius
Guest
I want to ask, what is Latin’s place, not just within the Church where the answer is very clear but to you personally?
I will be up front and tell all of you that I have never been to a Latin Mass before. I have only ever attended the Novus Ordo but I would like to start attending in Latin if it were at all possible. I am fluent in Latin and one of my favorite things to do on Sunday is pull our Priest to the side and have little quick conversations in Latin. We don’t match word order but that is ok.
The reason I bring this up is so that everyone will know that I am not someone that would ever think of bashing the New Mass even though I know we should stand up to abuse whenever possible. I feel myself becoming more and more traditional as time goes on and my parish I think is doing the same. It is a parish where about 70% of the women wear a head covering and in certain places in the Church, they will actually take off their shoes.
As someone who knows Latin, I would love to see every Catholic bilingual in the Language of the Church. I know that a lot of traditionalist Catholics who bash the Church want to go back to only the Latin Mass. Notice, I didn’t say all traditionalist Catholics, just those that bash the Church and want to go back to Latin only Mass. In my own opinion, I think at least part of the Mass should be said in Latin, even if it is the Novus Ordo. The Eucharistic Prayer being the most fitting place.
I have noticed that a lot of the traditionalist Catholics who currently still bash the Church for not respecting Latin enough don’t actually know the language. I know that I have not meet every traditionalist Catholic in the world so I am asking here.
What is the place that Latin has in your life?
Do you know the language?
Do you read the language?
Do you at least study the language and encourage others to do so?
Do you see Latin as a link to all other Catholics in the world or a way to distinguish yourself and your beliefs from those that are still in obedience to the Church?
I ask these questions because it seems to me the Vatican II upheld Latin very firmly even if that part of the council has not been carried out very well. I recently did a check on the Vatican’s website and found that of all the Papal documents that they currently have on file to view on the website, only the documents of John XXIII and after are in Latin. From Pope Leo XIII to Pius XII all most all of the documents are in Italian, and a total of zero that I can find are actually in Latin. Now this could be for two reasons. One is that they didn’t write documents in Latin and the other is that the Latin versions of their documents were not put on the website. It seems odd to me that if the Latin versions of these documents existed that they would not be put on the website. Just about every important document from John XXIII to Benedict XVI have a Latin version, and in many cases, the Latin version is the ONLY version.
So, Exactly how much Latin do the traditionalist Catholics that are in opposition to the Church want. Do they just want Mass in Latin and everything else in the vernacular or do they actually want as much in Latin as possible? It seems to me, unless new evidence that I have not found yet comes to light, we have MORE Latin in the Church now after Vatican II then before.
Again, I am not confronting all traditional Catholics. I am not saying that the extraordinary form of the Mass is in any way bad. I would attend it if given even a remote opportunity. (I have yet to find a Tridentine Mass anywhere on the Island I live on) I began to study Latin as a teenage all by myself and I really like the Language. I personally feel that at least one unchanging part of the Mass should be in Latin in all of the Latin Rite and considering the big controversy of the words of Consecration in the English Translation, the Eucharistic Prayer seems the best place to call for uniformity. I say most of my prayers in Latin.
I think that the current situation of the Church, in allowing Latin many who want it but not forcing it on anyone is actually a good way. This lets us know that Latin can be taken away from us again if we start going to Mass and praying the Rosary instead of following along with the Priest. I would encourage every Catholic in the World, even Eastern Catholics, to be bilingual in Latin. This is not to say that they should Latinize their Church or change their own liturgical language, just that Latin should retian its place as the international, and Inter-Rite language of the Church that just so happens to be one of the Liturgical lanugages of the Church. I would encourage every Latin Catholic to learn one of the liturgical languages of the eastern Catholics as I would also encourage eastern Catholics to know their own liturgical language, be it Slavonic, Greek, Coptic or Aramaic.
I will be up front and tell all of you that I have never been to a Latin Mass before. I have only ever attended the Novus Ordo but I would like to start attending in Latin if it were at all possible. I am fluent in Latin and one of my favorite things to do on Sunday is pull our Priest to the side and have little quick conversations in Latin. We don’t match word order but that is ok.
The reason I bring this up is so that everyone will know that I am not someone that would ever think of bashing the New Mass even though I know we should stand up to abuse whenever possible. I feel myself becoming more and more traditional as time goes on and my parish I think is doing the same. It is a parish where about 70% of the women wear a head covering and in certain places in the Church, they will actually take off their shoes.
As someone who knows Latin, I would love to see every Catholic bilingual in the Language of the Church. I know that a lot of traditionalist Catholics who bash the Church want to go back to only the Latin Mass. Notice, I didn’t say all traditionalist Catholics, just those that bash the Church and want to go back to Latin only Mass. In my own opinion, I think at least part of the Mass should be said in Latin, even if it is the Novus Ordo. The Eucharistic Prayer being the most fitting place.
I have noticed that a lot of the traditionalist Catholics who currently still bash the Church for not respecting Latin enough don’t actually know the language. I know that I have not meet every traditionalist Catholic in the world so I am asking here.
What is the place that Latin has in your life?
Do you know the language?
Do you read the language?
Do you at least study the language and encourage others to do so?
Do you see Latin as a link to all other Catholics in the world or a way to distinguish yourself and your beliefs from those that are still in obedience to the Church?
I ask these questions because it seems to me the Vatican II upheld Latin very firmly even if that part of the council has not been carried out very well. I recently did a check on the Vatican’s website and found that of all the Papal documents that they currently have on file to view on the website, only the documents of John XXIII and after are in Latin. From Pope Leo XIII to Pius XII all most all of the documents are in Italian, and a total of zero that I can find are actually in Latin. Now this could be for two reasons. One is that they didn’t write documents in Latin and the other is that the Latin versions of their documents were not put on the website. It seems odd to me that if the Latin versions of these documents existed that they would not be put on the website. Just about every important document from John XXIII to Benedict XVI have a Latin version, and in many cases, the Latin version is the ONLY version.
So, Exactly how much Latin do the traditionalist Catholics that are in opposition to the Church want. Do they just want Mass in Latin and everything else in the vernacular or do they actually want as much in Latin as possible? It seems to me, unless new evidence that I have not found yet comes to light, we have MORE Latin in the Church now after Vatican II then before.
Again, I am not confronting all traditional Catholics. I am not saying that the extraordinary form of the Mass is in any way bad. I would attend it if given even a remote opportunity. (I have yet to find a Tridentine Mass anywhere on the Island I live on) I began to study Latin as a teenage all by myself and I really like the Language. I personally feel that at least one unchanging part of the Mass should be in Latin in all of the Latin Rite and considering the big controversy of the words of Consecration in the English Translation, the Eucharistic Prayer seems the best place to call for uniformity. I say most of my prayers in Latin.
I think that the current situation of the Church, in allowing Latin many who want it but not forcing it on anyone is actually a good way. This lets us know that Latin can be taken away from us again if we start going to Mass and praying the Rosary instead of following along with the Priest. I would encourage every Catholic in the World, even Eastern Catholics, to be bilingual in Latin. This is not to say that they should Latinize their Church or change their own liturgical language, just that Latin should retian its place as the international, and Inter-Rite language of the Church that just so happens to be one of the Liturgical lanugages of the Church. I would encourage every Latin Catholic to learn one of the liturgical languages of the eastern Catholics as I would also encourage eastern Catholics to know their own liturgical language, be it Slavonic, Greek, Coptic or Aramaic.