Latin Fast Becoming Dead Language in Roman Catholic Church

Latin remains the official language of the Roman Catholic Church, but fewer and fewer churchmen read, speak or write it.

“Latin is dying in the church, it is doomed,” said Father Reginald Foster, who as one of six papal Latinists writes Pope John Paul II’s speeches and letters as well as Vatican documents in Latin.

Father Diarmuid Martin, a spokesman for the extraordinary Synod of Bishops here in late November and early December, said that only about 40% of the more than 160 participants spoke in Latin. “It’s going down each time, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

One young cardinal brought his 65-year-old secretary to the synod to write speeches for him in Latin.

Many Need Translations

“One of the most startling sights at the extraordinary synod was the cardinals and bishops busily putting on their earphones (for translation) as soon as someone began to speak in Latin,” said Foster, a 46-year-old Carmelite monk from Milwaukee.

Although Jesus spoke Aramaic, a Semitic tongue, and Greek was the literary language of the Greco-Roman world of his day, Latin was increasingly used in the Western churches of the Roman Empire in the early centuries.

Latin’s decline began after the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, which allowed the use of local languages in the celebration of the Mass. Pope John Paul II, who is fluent in Latin, has reinstated the Latin Mass for certain occasions and generally encouraged the use of the language in the church.

But Foster said the Pope, who speaks several modern languages in addition to his native Polish, has not helped the cause of Latin.

Knows Many Languages

“Pope Paul VI used to speak in Latin when addressing bishops from other countries,” Foster said, “but John Paul hardly uses Latin because he knows so many other languages the bishops speak.”

Foster said Italian is widely used in the Vatican, but more and more interdepartmental documents are written in English.

Foster said today’s seminarians do not seem interested in studying Latin, which is no longer compulsory, and the church is not pushing it. “The seminary enrollment is down generally in Western countries, so why push another unpopular subject to turn them off?” he said.

Modern Phrases

Latin experts at the Vatican, who often find it difficult to translate modern expressions into Latin, are putting together a Latin dictionary of modern terminology.

Some examples from the new dictionary:

- Modus femineus liberandes, for women’s liberation movement.

- Violenta aeronavigii abducdio, for an airplane hijacking.

- Celere remedium, for a quick remedy or fast cure.

Both Foster and Martin maintained that priests who lack a knowledge of Latin are unable to consult a great bulk of church documents.

“If you don’t know Latin, you are totally out of contact with 1,900 years of the church,” Foster said. “It’s like trying to study Chinese history, literature and thoughts without knowing the Chinese language.”