Posted on 09/23/2015 2:54:03 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
As a visitor to the United States, Pope Francis faces a minor challenge: His English isn’t so great. Over the course of the trip, he’ll give 18 speeches, and only four of them will be in English; he’ll mostly use his native language, Spanish, to give homilies and addresses.
But at Wednesday’s mass in Washington, D.C., at which Francis will canonize Father Junipero Serra, he’ll add another linguistic twist. The main prayers of the service, along with the celebration of the Eucharist—the part of the service when people take communion—will be in Latin.
Latin! This is an exclamation-mark-worthy fact for a few reasons. “It’s very unusual,” said Father John O’Malley, the Georgetown University professor and author of What Happened at Vatican II. “It’s not unheard of, but it doesn’t make much sense, if you’re in an English parish, or a Spanish parish, to do it in Latin.”
[big snip]
...That’s why it’s so interesting that Francis has chosen to include Latin in his D.C. mass:... “He’s the first pope in 50 years not to have participated in the Council,” O’Malley said. “That’s good, because he’s not fighting the battles of the Council.”
The mass that will be celebrated in D.C. on Wednesday is not the pre-Vatican II mass. The service will include English, Spanish, and several other languages, according to a Vatican spokesperson, and the pope won’t be following the Tridentine liturgy....
More likely than not, the decision to use Latin in the mass is a matter of comfort: The pope isn’t very good at English and he’ll already be speaking a lot of Spanish, so the mass offers an opportunity to incorporate another language into this visit. But it’s a small reminder that no move the pope makes come without complicated history—and symbolism—attached.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Rather the 30,000 brands is about right.
If humankind wasn’t ready - why didn’t Chrust wait.
Your response is incoherent.
Do you have a source for that?
It seems stunningly simple to me, also. Thanks for the FR leadership.
My first language is Spanish. Amazingly, after spending a week in Romania, I could understand about 80% of what was said to me because of it’s common Latin base. Italian is much more similar, but it just goes to show how strong the language skills stuck throughout the Roman Empire.
Even after two Millennia.
I know what the Mass sounds like in Latin. Why do you care?
AMEN! You know, from the Greek! ;)
Amen again, from the Greek! :)
I know what you mean. My church Latin and my high school Spanish allows me to understand the Holy Father (at least the major points when he speaks). Also I can kind of half read Italian.
You should be able to, as both are very similar. Much more similar than Portuguese and Spanish.
I can understand written French just because of the similarities in their root language.
I agree!!
Luther wasn’t the first. He followed in the footsteps of other Catholics. Read about men such as Wycliffe and Jan Hus.
Headed off to trade school where I shined.
Likewise "Arma Virumque cano" which is the opening line of Virgil's Aeneid (Latin IV). I am sure that there are also memorable lines from various works of Cicero (Latin III) although his syntax is quite complicated. Of course, the translator's friend is a Latin to English dictionary. The traditional Catholic's friend is the St. Joseph's Daily Missal.
May God bless you and yours!
Puella pulchra (that young lady whom you might sensibly wish to marry and settle down with and have as many children as God chose to send you when both of you were of an appropriate age).
I’m witcha on that! The Latin Mass was not so difficult to understand at all. And it was universal.
Thank you, BlackElk for the brief trip down memory lane.
It isn’t surprising to find that Latin is what they call a dead language, although it is still plenty useful, and I think the unusual sentence arrangement is what did it in.
Subject, object, predicate seems strange and was difficult for me. I admit I love the English language. For me, it has everything, if used properly.
Thanks again.
P.S. It wasn’t simple for me.
Ad deum qui latificat uventutem meum ... I never knew what I was saying
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