Why use Latin?

[wed2catholic]

Starting at the end again…cuz I like that… The Bible is absolutely a vital part of being a Catholic! In fact, most of the Catholics around this forum will let you know that the Catholic Church wrote the Bible! But of course the New Testament was written mostly in Greek, not Latin, so a translation had to be done somewhere along the way. Happily and unfortunately, there were other translations later on too. Unfortunate when the translation didn’t come out real great, happy when it did. The Douay-Rheims, for example, was the first good Catholic English translation, and it came out 2 years before the King James Version.

Now before this, Bible-making was literally writing it out by hand. This made having books a super-luxury item, so basically none of the congregation could have had a Bible, or any other book, so they never bothered to learn how to read. Consider even today’s situation; reading is a leisure activity. Well, when you’re tending the farm all day, you have even less leisure, so even if someone had the idea that he might like to learn to read, he really wouldn’t have even had time for it, unless he was a priest. So, if nobody is going to read it, why bother to translate the Bible? The printing press was the thing that really started the ball rolling on this.

As for how a curious person could learn about Jesus going to a Latin Mass? Well, they wouldn’t…not their first time at least. You see, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not primarily designed to be a teaching mechanism. It is where we re-present the One Eternal Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary to God the Father. There is a homily right after the Gospel, but that would not be in Latin, because that is the teaching portion. The time for learning has always been in a class or discussion outside of Mass, like RCIA, or other catechism series.

By comparison, I don’t think you would learn much about what the Church teaches simply by attending an English-language Mass either. Compare it to the Anglican or Lutheran services, and you have many of the same structures and prayers, and yet those same prayers mean very different things in those communities.

The Church is indeed reeling now from several decades of terrible catechesis, but I wouldn’t blame that on Latin.

The part about reading for leisure makes sense; I am also glad to hear that the homily was not done in Latin–did not know this.

I have learned things from English-speaking Mass (more about Jesus in general than about what the church specifically teaches–although I have figured some of that out from the prayers), but I cannot speak for other people.

 

[atassina]

“Perhaps you are working under the impression that the readings and homily would be in Latin-- they would not.”

Yes, I was working under that impression; good to know–this makes more sense.

“Perhaps you are also operating under the assumption that the Church did not have bible translations in the language of the people, which is an incorrect assumption.”

This is also an assumption I have or had; I am not sure at what point the Bible began to be translated into other languages (after Latin).

“Also, the *literate *of the era read and wrote Latin and would have been able to read either. Latin was not only the language of the Church but of university, the law, and science.”

Yes, I understand this; I just wanted to know how the common people would have heard and learned anything about Christ, but if the homily and readings were in the common vernacular, then that would explain it.

“I think maybe you are operating under some misconceptions about the Church and its past.”

This is very possible; that is why I am asking questions–to have these cleared

up.

The Latin Vulgate is the Latin of the common people.

 

[carletoncath]

I’d have to do a little search to find a great paper written on this, but because Latin is a “dead” language we are able to be quite precise about the meaning of words therefore the same message is continually conveyed, the language is set apart as sacred for worship, not the profane common everyday language of the highways and byways, the priest could be from anywhere in the world and offer Mass anywhere also. Being an english speaker it really isn’t that hard to understand the Latin, so much of our language can be seen to be derived from it, I admit to taking it for two years in high school because of my interest in science, I’m a nurse now, but that was thirty years before I joined the Church, additionally the Missals are divided into a column in Latin and one in English so with time you just naturally learn the Latin with a bit of interest.

 

[Evan]

When the Church decided to keep the Latin regardless that it ceased to be the language of the education (in the XVI Century)

I know, in the field of Mathematics, you still needed to publish your dissertation in Latin in the 1820’s (XIX Century). [genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=7402]](Julius Plücker - The Mathematics Genealogy Project]) So I don’t think it died out nearly as early as you think.

I attended public school and Latin was offered both in my High School and in the University. This was in Oregon, in the Wild West, out where we wear cowboy boots, ride horses, and rope cattle. Where Latin is King