We went to Mass in Latin yesterday and today. It is easy to understand the Latin used in Mass after reading and hearing it for a little while.
Many, many books about Our Lord and His Sacrifice and history of the Church have been around for hundreds of years in vernacular languages and people have been discussing them for as long. Those written in Latin, the language of learning which bound the scholastic world together for centuries, have been available in translation for debate and discussion for quite some time.
I hope I didn’t come across as not liking the centralized structure of the Catholic church. I find it very comforting that there is ‘one truth’...that doesn’t change.
Contrasted to some of the Protestant churches in my area that practically encourage homosexuality, and a variety of other progressive notions, the ‘one word’ of the Catholic church cannot change - that’s a good thing.
But make no mistake - the concept of a ‘Shepherd’ and his ‘Flock’...and the term ‘Father’ for a priest set up a situation where the people come to church to be informed...not to break up into small groups and do a bible study and place bullet points on a pad of butcher block paper.
And as far as Latin goes...this was one of the major things Martin Luther did, contrary to the wishes of the Catholic church...i.e., he translated the Bible into a commonly spoken language (German) for the first time. Prior to that, the sheep in the flock were not meant to read it themselves...rather, their father the priest would read it for them, and tell them the story or sermon about it.
Its a very important distinction that separates Catholics from Protestants. Yes this line has been blurred by eliminating the Latin mass as a requirement, and translating bibles...but the notion of ‘Shepherd and Flock’ is still very much a part of the Catholic church.
Again - I don’t think this is a bad thing.
And as an aside, I took 5 years of Latin....so I know a little bit about it. When you hear church Latin and ‘understand’ it....it is understood like I understand Spanish tv. I’ve never learned Spanish...but based on the situation and the few words that are similar to English, I can tell what’s going on. So I ‘understand’ it. But I couldn’t have a deep philosophical discussion in it, or hardly form my own sentences in Spanish. If I really want to know everything that’s going on with Spanish tv, I’m either going to learn Spanish or find an English translation. Short of that, I’m only getting half the meaning.