[Iscool]

But English, while a local vernacular, is local on 3 continents --- the British Isles, Canada, USA, Australia, NZ, and many ex-British-Empire places --- and the best and most widespread "second" language almost everywhere, on all 6 inhabited continents. That has its advantages, too.

Would seem the common language of the World is becoming/has become English...Would it not be naive to think that God does not have a hand in this???

Perhaps the Catholic religion should just let go of the old, dead Latin just as it one time let go of the old, dead Greek...

[Alberta's Child]

The "dead" aspect of Latin is what makes it so appealing. The English language (or any other modern language, for that matter) itself is not the problem. The problem is that the modern Mass has been subject to multiple translations that change the meanings of many of the most important elements of Christianity in subtle (but deliberate) ways.

Look at the first line of the Nicene Creed in the English translation of the Mass, for example ... "We believe in one God, (etc.)" ... when the original Latin version ... "Credo in unum Deum" specifically means: "I believe (etc.)" The Nicene Creed is a personal profession of the Christian faith, not a communal one.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm all in favor of a real revival of ancient languages ---Hebrew Greek and Latin --- since there's so much there that's basic to who we are. Being advised to "let go of" your root languages is like being told to let go of your cellular organelles. It's the wrong advice because they're not "old and dead," they're old and basic to life.

What? "Let go of" mitochondria since we could have such nifty nanoengineering now from MIT? Permit me to think it would be a loss, for which the latest bio-nano-innovations would be no very adequate compensation.

Besides, English is already dated, on the wane. I think it may come down to everybody doing Christianity in Chinese. There's an idea.