Cardinals call on Pope to save Latin from last rites

Times OnLine ^ | October 24, 2005 | Martin Penner

[NYer]

O TEMPORA, o mores! The rolling thunder that is the Latin language is in such trouble, even in its last redoubt, the heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, that cardinals and bishops have begged Pope Benedict XVI to put it on a life support machine.

The Princes of the Church appear to have the same problem that bedevilled generations of baffled English schoolboys battling their way across the three divided parts of Gaul with Julius Caesar — they don’t speak it, read it or understand it. And while the grandly dressed and highly respected congregation at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops may not have to write out 100 times Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres as a punishment for their ignorance, they appear now to be at least as embarrassed as any ink-stained duffer who confuses the vocative with the nominative.

When Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice, opened the synod, he gave his address entirely in Latin, sending many of the 241 participants rushing for headsets to hear a translation. Nothing could have better illustrated the Church’s fading proficiency in its own language.

To help bishops to follow the written text in front of them, Scola gave his audience useful pointers, such as, “paginam decimam quartam”. For many, this was of little help. It was clear that some kind of extra tuition was needed. So yesterday, after the three-week gathering had helped to demonstrate how serious was the need for a simple means of communication across the language barriers amidst the Church’s international flock, the synod called on the Pope to help to stop Latin falling entirely into disuse.

One of the synod’s 50 “propositions” to the Pope is that the language should feature prominently in Masses at major international events, where Catholics speaking many different languages are present.

It is expected to appeal to the Pope, who in June invited Catholics to pray in Latin whenever possible, emphasising its universal dimension. “Latin makes it easier for Christians from different countries to pray together, especially when they meet for special occasions,” he said .

Although ever fewer people outside the Vatican understand Latin, the language is used for papal encyclicals and other important Church documents.

There are few, even in the Church, who can speak it fluently. The tradition at Vatican synods of having at least one discussion group work in Latin was abandoned this year.

According to reports, only one synod participant spoke Latin every time he took the microphone: Latvian Cardinal Janis Pujats, the Archbishop of Riga. He did the same at the previous synod in 2001, when a disconsolate Pope John Paul II commented: “Paupera lingua latina, ultimum refugium habet in Riga” (Poor Latin, it has its last refuge in Riga).

The next time a Pope makes a joke in Latin, perhaps more of his cardinals and bishops will understand him.

[NYer]

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates solemn mass in St Peter's Square 23 October 2005, for the canonization of five Blesseds (Polish Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski and compatriot priest Zygmunt Gorazdowski, Italians priest Gaetano Catanoso and father Felice da Nicosia, Chilean priest Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga ) to mark the end of the Synod of Bishops, the first of his pontificate. In a "message to the people of God" marking the end of a three-week gathering of 250 bishops and cardinals at the Vatican, the bishops called on political leaders to enact laws protecting marriage and the family, outlawing abortion and euthanasia

[NYer]

[TradicalRC]

It is expected to appeal to the Pope, who in June invited Catholics to pray in Latin whenever possible, emphasising its universal dimension. “Latin makes it easier for Christians from different countries to pray together, especially when they meet for special occasions,” he said .

Do you know of any site that has the prayers in Latin with an accompanying phonetic text for proper pronunciation?

[Desdemona]

Do you know of any site that has the prayers in Latin with an accompanying phonetic text for proper pronunciation?

Which proper pronunciation? There's church Latin, classical Latin and whatever the music director thinks is correct. No two are the same.

[Pyro7480]

Here's a pronunciation guide from an excellent site: The Pronunciation of Latin

[B Knotts]

Every Catholic needs to bookmark this:

Thesaurus Precum Latinarum

[B Knotts]

Oops...didn't notice your link goes to the same site. Oh, well...

[Pyro7480]

It's ok. We might get more people to see it in the process.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

That is such a good site. I discovered it a long time ago, and go there first when looking for Latin prayers...They have a pdf of the Rosary which prints off as a booklet, which I am printing off this morning so I can carry it with me in my purse.

[SaltyJoe]

http://store.yahoo.com/rosettastone/latin.html

Cheap, unless there's a better method?

[Pyro7480]

Is it classical or ecclesiastical Latin?

[magisterium]

Wow! (Said hoarsely, like the three guys sampling the moonshine in "The Great Escape) ;-)

[B Knotts]

Don't run Windows, though.

[SaltyJoe]

Idunno. I think it's very basic, enough to get the feet wet I suppose.

[AnAmericanMother]

Great site! I've had it bookmarked since before they changed addresses!

I will caution you that the translations are not literal. Many times, the translation is simply a rhymed English paraphrase commonly used as a hymn or anthem.

The best way to get absolutely literal translations of antiphons, prayers, anthems, etc. is to get a used copy of Chants of the Church edited by Msgr. Charles E. Spence (1953, Toledo: Gregorian Institute of America). It's a selection of material from the Liber Usualis (a prohibitively expensive tome in reprint), and it has an absolutely literal and correct interlinear translation. It ALSO has a wonderful guide to pronunciation (in the Italianate/ecclesiastical style) in the front. If you Google the title and author's name, you should be able to turn up a dirt cheap copy (I got mine for 9 bucks.)

[Pyro7480]

If you want a "hard copy" of something like that website, a good book is The Raccolta. All of the prayers are in English in the book, but many of them also have the Latin version following. It's a neat book.

[Pyro7480]

See my post #17 as well.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thanks and bookmarked!

Isn't that also the book where we can find out how many years off Purgatory we used to get?

[pgkdan]

Bump for looking when I'm home.