Happy Christmas everyone! I hope all my readers and listeners have had a wonderful feast of Christmas thus far. Today, Crisis Magazine has graciously published an article of mine on the Latin language, arguing that Catholics should have at least some knowledge of it. Here’s a snippet:
First, I think it should be clear that it is the Church’s Latin that is sacred and not Latin in general. No one thinks Catholics need to be able to read Cicero or fifteenth-century humanist poets (though Pius XII did once commission a translation of the psalter into classical Latin, which no one liked). It is the Latin of Western Church Fathers, of the Vulgate, the Roman Canon, the “Dies Irae” and many other ancient texts that is sacred to Catholics. If it is not obvious, this question of Latin is bound up with the Old Roman Rite, since it is one of the oldest expressions of this Latin, and one that has been hallowed by the many saints who worshiped in that rite down the ages.
Please read it all. Cheers!
