Some prayers are sung in Latin at my parish. And, when they do, I stand there wondering “what’s the point?”
That’s either rude or ignorant.
agr4028, I’ve been reading your posts in this thread, and I find myself becoming irritated with you.
As has been mentioned numerous times, the language is “universal, immutable, and non-vernacular” (
Veterum Sapientia). As Pope John XXIII wrote in 1962 (just prior to Vatican II): a) “it seems particularly desirable that the instrument of mutual communication be uniform and universal”, b) “[Latin] has long since ceased to be affected by those alterations in the meaning of words which are the normal result of daily, popular use”, c) “the Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord” and thus it is “altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular”, and d) “the Latin language ‘can be called truly catholic.’” I strongly urge you to read this document I’ve linked to. It explains the mind of the Church on the matter of the Latin language.
Tell me: if you were attending Mass at a parish in another country, one where your native tongue was not spoken, and whose native tongue you did not speak, how would you make your responses during Mass? In English? Wouldn’t it be a greater sign of universality – of being Catholic – if you could speak the same language as the other people in the parish? Wouldn’t that help you attain “full, conscious, and active participation”? Well, if Latin were retained (like the Church said it should be), we would be taught the ordinary and responses in Latin (and learn what they mean in our native tongues) so that we could speak them no matter where we are! There would be a visible – err, audible – sign of unity in the church when everyone spoke the same language, Latin, and yet knew what they were saying in their own languages… something akin to the Pentecost experience, I would say.
If you’re baffled by singing Latin hymns, what’s the point of me singing “
Pan de vida, cuerpo del Senor” in my parish? We don’t have a large Spanish contingent; we’ve got more Filipinos and Indians than Latinos by far!
Finally, no one is asking you to
learn Latin. The Church teaches Her priests Latin, but it’s not required of the laity to learn Latin. Surely you haven’t learned French, Spanish, and Italian, have you? But I bet you know what
laissez-faire,
c’est la vie!,
hasta la vista,
ciao,
cul-de-sac,
no problemo,
hola,
no capice,
déjà vu, etc. mean. Maybe you don’t know all of them (by sight, probably hearing them, though) but you know most of them. It’s not a matter of learning the language, it’s a matter of learning the phrases that you would use at Mass.
Take a guess: what does
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, amen mean? I bet if you saw someone making the sign of the cross while saying it, you’d catch on quick.
Pope John XXIII also praised Latin for its “vocabulary of appropriate and unequivocal terms, best calculated to safeguard the integrity of the Catholic faith”; so yes, to answer your question, the Church uses Latin to ensure it teaches consistently. The Latin editions of texts are the official ones; translations are merely authorized.
And about those translations… perhaps the people doing the translating simply don’t know Latin. Or they don’t want to translate, they want to paraphrase. If you were to compare the ICEL “translations” of some of the prayers of the Mass with authentic translations of those same texts, you would be surprised.
And finally, Latin-vernacular missals are a supreme help. I have my mother’s, from 1961. It has the ordinary of the Mass in Latin and English, and it has the English translation of the propers of the Mass. Reading it before Mass helps you prepare. And clearly, Vatican II recognized the ideal Mass would have
some vernacular in it.
So please, tell us: what are your problems with Latin?
