Return to Latin… And if we had stayed there ?
Subtitle: Job description? Arsonist and Fireman
The Vatican will set up this year a commission responsible for reviving the use of Latin in the Church and the ecclesiastic sciences, according to the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Grochlewski.
The initiative has been launched because of the crisis in the use of Latin within the Catholic Church since Vatican Council II. The recent publication of two books has underlined this crisis. One of these, Latin and Christians, edited by the Vatican, gathers together the acts of a conference on this subject, held in the Jubilee Year 2000. The other is a compilation of 28 papal documents, including nine by John Paul II.
In a message published on the occasion of the first day of the latinitas celebrated on May 31, 2001 in Rome, the Pope turned his attention to the question.
The language of Caesar is not a dusty relic of the past, it is still capable today of uniting peoples in an era of hyper-technology and the internet was the substance of the Popes message.
This stand is, in itself, a good thing; it is a pity, however, that yet again it is not followed up with logical and concrete action. To this end, may we suggest that after the creation of this commission, the Vatican sets up a commission, whose aim would be an apprenticeship of the Latin (Tridentine) Mass for priests who wish it. At a time when there is so much talk of unity of the Church, such an initiative could see a day when priests would set the example of unity in sacred places and actions.
It now remains for the Vatican to show by its actions that the new commission for Latin is not reduced to one of the many commissions producing an abundance of paperwork, but with a weak effectiveness, to say the least, as regards the staving off of a crisis, ignited by those who now have the noble intention of playing firemen.
