[RFEngineer]

"What wonderful tolerance has been demonstrated by our Protestant friends over the years!"

Hilarious! I don't wish my Catholic friends ill, my friend, but I do point out that without great men who operated outside of Catholic Church Doctrine like John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into the common tongue, the great unwashed masses would not have access to the Word of God - because Rome wanted to control it by keeping it in Latin - which the vast vast majority of people did not understand. That was a bad thing.

Protestants have done many things, many of them bad, Catholics have done many things, many of them bad.

Your point is? My point isn't that Catholics are better or worse than Protestants. In fact, we are more the same than anything else. I'm happy for those who wish to "return" to the Catholic faith. I hope Catholics the world over welcome them if they do.....

[AlaninSA]

Having Mass said in Latin was not intended to keep it "from the masses." It was intended to keep it universal -- that the same Mass would be said no matter where in the world you attended it.

Please don't go assuming you understand my Church based on what you read in a Jack Chick publication.

[A.A. Cunningham]

John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into the common tongue

The Bible was translated into the vernacular long before Wycliffe, by, but not limited to, the follwing:

Caedmon, a monk of Whitby, 7th century

Venerable Bede, Eadhelm, Guthlac, Egbert in Saxon all during the 8th century.

Raban Maur 8th century

Lindisfarne Gospels 10th century

King Alfred the Great

Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury

paraphrase of Orm, 12th century

Salus Animae 13th century

William Shoreham and Richard Rolle, 14th century

John Trevisa 14th century

because Rome wanted to control it by keeping it in Latin

Urban legend rhetoric propagated by the ignorant and dishonest.

[The Old Hoosier]

Rome wanted to control it by keeping it in Latin

Judging by the way the liberals have torn apart and deconstructed the Bible in the centuries following, it's at least arguable whether this was a good or a bad thing.

People still believed what was in the Bible in those days, even if they didn't know Latin...

[SuziQ]

because Rome wanted to control it by keeping it in Latin

I think it had more to do with the fact that with Latin as the 'universal' language, it didn't matter which peoples were converted, or their native language, the Mass would be said in the same language everywhere, and folks in other countries wouldn't have to chance to put their own 'spin' on the Word of God.