Replies

>> Face it---Latin is a dead issue (and language) except in the hierarchy of the Church, and a few traditionalists longing wistfully for the past.<<

I respectfully disagree.
Latin is huge in the homeschool community. I teach my five and seven year olds Latin.

The only reason why Latin has been put on the back burner in the RC church is because the priests were either discouraged from using it or flying libs themselves.

I posted a thread on Catholic Answers forums whether Latin was used in their Liturgy. I had MANY people stating that a part of their Mass was in Latin. These are not TLM masses! It hadn't been that way 5 years ago. B16 is going to cause many more conservative priests to go into the parishes. The young conservative Priests, with the Lavendar Mafia out of the seminaries, will bring the traditions back to our parishes.

I think you will see Latin come back. Smart parents understand that a child knowing Latin knows the roots of English words and will understand Medical and Biological terms better.

"Latin is huge in the homeschool community. I teach my five and seven year olds Latin."

Which is a totally separate area than the use of Latin in the RCC mass. Latin as an educational experience is VERY useful, as it gives a partial background for many other languages. This is, however, a totally different mode of use than the rote repetition in the R. Catholic mass.

I think you are correct that there will be SOME judicious usage of Latin in the R.C. mass---but I don't think things will ever go back to the way they were "pre-Vatican II", which is what the folks like Mershon really want.

I'll be the first to admit that those priests who formulated the Roman Catholic English-language mass had no "poetry in their soul", as did the original formulators of the Episcopal mass service back when the Anglicans first split off from the RC church (NOT, please note, the current "revised" Episcopal eucharist service, which is just about as bad as the current RC one). The langauge in the old Episcopal "Book of Common Prayer" is some of the most lyrical in the English tongue---as is the King James Bible--even if it isn't as accurate a translation as current editions. The language of the 23rd psalm in the KJV transcends beautiful--current translations "need not apply" by comparison.