Why the reverence for Latin?

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this is the best answer ive heard, and it makes sense. A friend of my son is first generation American, his parents were born in South Korea. They attend the Korean Mass only, so we never see them at mass. It would be nice to see them there, worship together, and converse after mass…but since they prefer to attend in their language (which I would too), we don’t see them.
 
I love Latin, but I’m not even sure why. I know others will give you the historical background, so I’m just speaking my personal opinion. I think it’s beautiful and ancient and almost other-wordly. It reminds me of the Apostles and the ancient monks.
 
Indeed, Latin for me is other-worldly in part because it is a “dead language,” not part of my everyday life, my secular life. It is a language associated with Roman Catholic prayer. Latin is a heavenly feast for my senses of hearing and sight, just as frankincense and myrrh are for my sense of smell and Rosary beads are for my sense of touch.
 
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It’s the chanting of Latin that captures me. It fits in nicely with my monastic affections. Latin polyphony does not do much for me, but with plainchant I somehow feel a connection with the very earliest days of monasticism and it reminds me that I’m part of a 1500 year old monastic tradition that is the oldest order in the Church,.
 
This is so true about being a different person in another language. The feelings I have when I speak German are different to what I feel when I speak English. This is really hard to explain to someone that only speaks 1 language. Becoming fluent in another language is a beautiful thing, you find feelings that though they have the same label, feel somehow qualitatively different. You also gain a connection somehow to a culture. This applies particularly to the Church. Language unites a country. When you speak the same language as someone, it gives you a deeper level of understanding with that person. You can be kind to someone without speaking their language, but you can’t understand them or be close to them personally without sharing a language. If we are all supposed to be in communion with one another in one Church, it only makes sense that we should all share a language. That language would have to fit the purpose of making us feel and act in ways appropriate to the setting. In the case of the liturgy, for the majority of Church history Latin served this purpose beautifully and she still does so today.
 
I love the Mass prayers, at the very least, sung in Latin.

The first non-English language I learned the Rosary in, was Latin, and I am learning the Angelus and the Latin Gospel in Latin too. The Creeds are, of course, prayers as well, as is the Confiteor, and all are glorious in Latin.
 
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“Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos, santificado sea tu nombre”
(Pater noster qui es in coelis, santificetur nomen tuum)
 
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godisgood77 said:
This is a seriously negative association in my view. The empire was bad thing and forceful conversion was very bad…taking over another culture and indoctrinating the people is not a Christian thing…
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How else do converts learn doctrine if not by indoctrination?
 
@godisgood77

A forced conversion is one thing but indoctrination is another. The word has a negative connotation now in our secularized world, which is generally skeptical that any truth can be known and held as religious doctrine.
 
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English is the official language of the International Civil Aeronautics Organization. And if your country is a member of ICAO you have to have English proficient endorsed on your pilot certificate.
 
0331 said:
A forced conversion is one thing but indoctrination is another. The word has a negative connotation now in our secularized world, which is generally skeptical that any truth can be known and held as religious doctrine.
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Forcible indoctrination is a bad thing as well… Example… Roman empire takes over area controlled by Gall and forces all adult inhabitants to take an oath of conversion. After that, the empire installs teachers in schools to indoctrinate the children. …hence forced indoctrination.

Contrast that example with this one… Student graduates from high school. Consults with guidance counselors, friends and parents and chooses Franciscan U at Steubenville for college education. Student is indoctrinated in to a deeper level of understanding of Church teaching… hence voluntary indoctrination
 
It was the vernacular of the times in the Roman Empire (with a few other langauges) and the language of the Church for a good while. Also, when priests from all over the world go to big meetings and pilgrimages, many celebrate mass in latin for the ease of use and a common bond.
 
q4g3gg3g said:
Because Latin mass types want to manufacture problems with the Pope, the Bishops, and the Church in general since Vatican II where there are no real problems. And FSSP types are mostly right wing (think Fr. Z, Fr. Ripperger), and they are a dependable funnel of ideas from the GOP, and they also draw white nationalist types, so they will get influence in that way as well.

In short, manufacture a problem (like Trump does regarding the border; facts show that border apprehensions are declining) and you get people to pay attention to you.
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🤣🤣🤣
I wonder why border apprehensions are declining…
 
Latin is the closest thing to a worldwide language that humanity has. The same reason it’s used quite a bit in the scientific naming process, in law (used to be), etc. If I say: res ipsa loquitur (it speaks for itself/the thing speaks for itself) … it is recognizable by anyone who knows Latin whether they are in New York City, Shanghai, London, Moscow, Kiev, or anywhere else. Universality is a wonderful thing.
 
I generally agree, if not to the extreme you are going to about Latin specifically.

I get the arguments for it (the universal language within the Latin Rite), however it seems the far-right like Fr. Z and Fr. Ripperger idolize the Latin Mass.
 
Victoria33 said:
Back to Latin, someone told me recently, that the Latin we read and pray in was… a more formal version of Latin, then, if you spoke to the people in the Roman Empire, they spoke a more “common form” of Latin
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I studied classical Latin back in high school, and nothing makes me cringe more than hearing Latin in Church. Classical Latin stopped evolving around the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Each province started to use it’s venacular more, as they weren’t connected to other provinces in the same way anymore. However, these vernacular languages combined parts of Latin into their language, e.g. Old Frank

The Church, however, continued to use Latin, and like the provinces, this Latin slowly changed into something we now know as Ecclesiastical Latin (as it was common enough to still go through changes). It borrowed some literary features from the derived vernaculars that were evolving.

Honestly, it’d make more sense for the Church to use English as the current and next official language, as it’s prominence in International Commerce and the internet places it in a similar level of that if what Classical Latin was.
 
boclucky14 said:
it’d make more sense for the Church to use English as the current
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According to Cardinal Arinze the reason for the new literal translation was to have a basis for some of the most remote vernaculars in foreign countries. It’s not because English is better but there are very few Latin translators left in the world.
 
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