Sure she can tell you what it means. If I give her a text she’s never seen before, can she translate it perfectly, no, but she can give you the gist of it.
Do you have a firm grasp of how a liturgy works? There are texts we hear over and over every Mass...but there are variable texts as well (readings, introits etc.) So over the course of a year you are exposed to the language in a variety of different ways. It’s not mere rote memorization of a phrase over and over.
Anyway, why be insistent on some perfect understanding of the text as if the liturgy is eviscerated without it? No *English* speaker has that. Does everyone fully understand what “consubstantial” really means, or “proceeds from the Father and the Son”? Does everyone know what “tares” are or “spelt”?
Every Catholic is (or should be anyway) from a young age catechized with what is going on at every point in the Mass. I could walk into a Chinese Mass, tell you exactly what is going on, and participate in it without understanding a single word. It’s no harder than watching a soccer game with a Spanish announcer.
My point being that the Latin therefore does not offer her a better understanding of the text than English would.
Do you have a firm grasp of how a liturgy works? There are texts we hear over and over every Mass...but there are variable texts as well (readings, introits etc.) So over the course of a year you are exposed to the language in a variety of different ways. It’s not mere rote memorization of a phrase over and over.
I'm a lecter and a Eucharistic minister, so let's say I've dabbled a bit. Much of the liturgy is repetitive, in as much as the nouns and verbs go. I think its wonderful that your wife goes to the effort and enjoys the Latin, I'm just not sharing the benefit.
Anyway, why be insistent on some perfect understanding of the text as if the liturgy is eviscerated without it? No *English* speaker has that. Does everyone fully understand what “consubstantial” really means, or “proceeds from the Father and the Son”? Does everyone know what “tares” are or “spelt”?
I wasn't being insistent on perfect clarity, I was just pointing out that Latin will not provide more clarity than the vernacular for more than 99% of people.
Every Catholic is (or should be anyway) from a young age catechized with what is going on at every point in the Mass. I could walk into a Chinese Mass, tell you exactly what is going on, and participate in it without understanding a single word. It’s no harder than watching a soccer game with a Spanish announcer.
Which is why I don't think Latin (or any other common language) is necessary for you to take part in a foreign language Mass. In any event, I imagine the pronunciation of Latin by Chinese or Welsh natives would be as equally incomprehensible as anything else they said.