Posted on 04/28/2005 1:09:30 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON - Pope Benedict XVI loves to chant the mass in Latin and occasionally preach in this language that had long been sidelined even in the Roman Catholic Church.
Now scholars such as David Jones, chairman of the classics department at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich., wonder: "Is this pontiff riding a trend -- or pushing it?"
That Latin and Greek are en vogue again seems to be an international phenomenon.
"I think, therefore I do Latin," runs an axiom popular among the brighter variety of British secondary school students. It is a play on French philosopher Réné Descartes' famous dictum, "I think, therefore I am."
In some cities, such as Leeds, they band together for after-school classes in Latin to boost their analytical skills, according to the BBC.
The lack of Latin teachers resulting from the neglect of the classics in the postmodern pedagogy of the 1970s and 1980s does not seem to hamper the enthusiasm of today's high school students. These days college students are doubling as instructors. Moreover, the classics have gone high-tech. To make up for the woeful shortage of teachers, the Cambridge Online Latin Project provides digital resources including an "e-tutor."
Students can send their homework. For a fee of approximately $18, the e-tutor will mark and annotate the papers.
In Germany, once a great bastion of the classics, Internet help for Latin learners has even triggered legal battles.
A 15-year old boy has caused the ire of textbook publishers by placing his own translations of the Latin classics online to be downloaded by others.
For while Cesar's De Bellum Gallicum clearly does not benefit from copyright protection, abbreviated schoolbook versions of such texts do. And so one publisher is suing him for copyright infringements and causing his company severe economic harm.
Moreover, the publisher accused him of "advanced criminal energy" -- and threatened to have him dragged before a criminal court.
Meanwhile in the United States, the revival of Latin and Greek proceeds along more genteel lines. Christian schools, which are rapidly growing in numbers, strongly emphasize instruction in these languages said Robert Benne, director of the Center for Religion and society in Salem, Va., who serves on the board of one of these institutions.
But secular schools, too, are taken a renewed interest in Latin, according to Hillsdale's Jones, who is impressed by the skills of some of their graduates in that language.
Gone are the days when nobody in the academy wanted to hear anything about the ancient world, says Jones, who attributes the new fascination with Latin and Greek to the conservative renewal of the last 20 years.
This interest has accelerated at such a rate over the last decade that "we at Hillsdale are teaching double and triple overloads to meet the need." Every year some 100 freshmen -- more than a quarter of the first-year students -- take Latin, and some Greek as well.
The situation is similar at many other small liberal arts schools, such as St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where professors observe a growing awareness among students that classics are essential for critical analysis.
Many Hillsdale graduates with a facility to read Latin and Greek move on to pursue advanced degrees in the German or French classical traditions, or to enter seminary, Jones says.
Others immerse themselves in these languages for the same reasons their forebears did -- simply to obtain a well-rounded education.
Meanwhile back in Rome, the new German pope will doubtless continue to promote Latin as part of "a reform of the reform," as he said when he was just plain Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, meaning that he will endeavor to reverse the triviality to which the mass had descended after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
As his predecessor, John Paul II, had written, "Sacred liturgy is the highest expression of the mysterious reality" and the "culminating point toward which the action of the Church is directed and at the same time the source from which all her strength is derived."
Vatican II bungled the liturgical reform, states the Rev. john McCloskey, a Catholic priest with the Faith and Reason Institute in Chicago.
Since presiding at the first funeral Mass for John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, has shown to the world the luxuriant beauty of the old mass that has inspired some of history's greatest composers. And that mass is sung and spoken in the language kids on both sides of the Atlantic have come to appreciate once again -- Latin.
That's probably what's bouncing around in my mind, the core vocab. There's a bunch of layers in English. Basic Anglo-Saxon. Influxes from the Danelaw, which have similarities to Old Islandic (and when you get to the northern islands, like the Orkeys and Shetlands, a lot more influence from that source goes on there. A dash, but not a lot of Celt. Then comes the Norman invasion. The grammar simplifies out by tons. Huge amount of borrowing. If you separate the direct latin borrow words from the French, you will see how much English by Chaucer's time is an amalgam of French that had filtered down from up top into the everyday talk - in large part because the upper classes mostly speaking French, and those that dealt with them slipped it into their language. At this time we see the separating of Scots from English, with a large number of words that just don't make it into modern English. Renaissance - huge amount of direct adaptations of Latin. It was a time that men of disctinction were known by how large their vocabularies were, and they swelled them with borrowings from Latin, and some from French and Italian, but mostly Latin. Words from India creep in during the Raj. In the 19th and 20th centuries we see more borrowings from German and Greek, in part for technical reasons...because we needed words and we are shameless at stealing them.
What a dynamic language. Breathtaking in it's layerings and regional developments and borrowings.
Everything you don't want a language to be if you want to keep steady meaning over the centuries.
That's what makes Latin such a wonderful tool. It grows some, because of the need for words to describe modern things, but it's done in a textbook way rather in the chaotic organic way that English does. This is why a person with a reasonable Latin background can still read Caesar and understand it. You try reading Beowulf in the original. Even the Pearl, my favorite religious poem in the English language needs heavy glossing.
The joys of language.
We need to say this after Mass again, Your Holiness. We really need St. Michael's protection now!
When we say this, in English, after Tridentine Low Mass, I notice that people around me are saying two or three different variations of translations for "pervagantur" or "perditionem" or "detrude." That's the problem with translations--they are not uniform. If we said it in Latin we'd all be on the same page.
Thank you for your eloquent response.
I found a little gem of a prayer book published in 1938 at a church yard sale. Sometimes my daughter uses it. Here is what it says for:
The priest lifting his eyes to heaven reverently bows his head and kissing the altar asks God through Jesus Christ to accept our offering. He makes the sign of the Cross three times over the Host and Chalice, to show that it is through the Redeemer that we obtain the blessing of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. All is quiet to impress upon those present the reverence with which they should assist at this part of the Mass. The Angels have come down from Heaven and are waiting to adore their God when He comes down on earth at the word of the priest. The priest prays in a low voice. Pray with him.
PRAYERS DURING THE CANON O Jesus! dying on the cross for love of poor sinners, through Thy sacred head crowned with thorns, I beg Thee to have mercy on the Pope, all bishops, priests, especially our own priests, all religious orders, and all those placed over us.Through the wound in Thy right hand, I recommend to Thee my parents, relatives, friends, and all who have been good to me.
Through the wound in Thy left hand, I plead for my enemies, all poor sinners, and the unbaptized. Help Thy servants who are trying to convert them.
Through the wound in Thy right foot, I pray for the poor, the sick, the dying, and for all who are in pain, temptation or trouble.
Through the wound in Thy left foot, I beg Thee mercifully to grant eternal rest to the souls of the faithful departed, especially those for whom I am bound to pray.
Through Thy Sacred Heart O Jesus! I offer myself to do and suffer all things for Thy love. Give me all the graces I need and especially the grace for which I am hearing this Holy Mass (name it)
These include Dr. Seuss books translated into Latin and all manner of age appropriate materials.
You have taken a short commentary and blown it out of proportion and repeatedly insulted me without any provocation. May I ask why?
That's because so many of the native words dropped out since -- well, that and the spelling! :-) When I took Old English, we started with a little booklet of texts with the spelling regularized -- and an OE dictionary regularized according to a different system. Our professor passed on a gem from one of her professors: In Old English, consonants count for little and vowels for nothing. LOL!
I couldn't believe how great Beowulf was in the original, though -- we'd read it in translation in high school and college and I really didn't care for it in either translation. Loved it in the original!
How have I insulted you?
I know, all the music sounds like its from a bad Broadway musical. That and the ''holy handshake'' really creep me out. I should go back to church but I tell you every time I go I feel worse then better.
Drop it.
words dropping out, and declensions dropping out, and three letters, too!
I've very good at middle English, but never got to master Old English.
You are so correct. We once said ONE version in English that was printed in the old Raccolta (Lord bless this book)! The version I remember saying is
"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince, of the Heavenly Host by the Divine Power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through this world seeking the ruin of souls." Amen
That goes back a long way but that is how we said it. Now, I hear so many versions with added "tropes"--translation dependent--that I can fully understand how the English N.O. Mass devolves according to individual interpretations. It is for this reason that Latin is so very practical.
You are correct. The Latin version would unite us!
Most of you folks are Catholic, right? Anybody know what's wrong with his thumb? From the picture on Newsweek, it looks deformed. Does he have heart disease or something? Thanks
http://www.catholicstore.com/browseproducts/The-Raccolta---Official-Edition.HTML
The Raccolta is our friend! I just looked it up on-line and posted it. No way could I remember it from memory.
Frank
http://www.unavoce.org/ltrose.htm
This is gorgeous too. It sounds heavenly when recited. I think tapes are available also.
Frank
No, no, no! Don't not go to church! Because in the end the most sublime thing, and the only thing, is the holy sacrifice of the mass in which our Lord becomes present and real for us right in front of our undeserving faces, no matter how shitty the music is. V's wife.
Well, yes, but wasn't it (St. Michael Prayer) devised by a 20th century pope? So, it's not like it was in Latin or anything. V's wife.
http://www.dailycatholic.org/leonine.htm
The prayer was written by Leo XIII which is why it is called the Leonine prayer, was done in the 19th century and definitely WAS in Latin. It was tranlated into the vernacular since it was not part of the Mass but said after it. The Last Gospel and other portions were always said in Latin and still are.
Frank
See #138.
LOL, no, but I thought your "turn on the lights" wasn't a bad translation.
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