News coverage of Motu Proprio and letter to Chinese Catholics

There is an AP article which a friend tipped me to in the Chicago Tribune.  The usual cliches pepper this piece  (my emphases):

Pope plans to revive old-style Latin mass
       
By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press

May 19, 2007

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican official has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI plans to loosen restrictions on celebrating the old Latin mass, reviving a rite that was essentially swept away by the revolutionary reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos said at a meeting of Latin American bishops in Brazil this week that the pope wanted to give all Catholics greater access to the so-called Tridentine Mass because of a "new and renewed interest" in the rite.

Benedict is also acting in a bid to reach out to an ultraconservative schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X, and bring it back into the Vatican’s fold, Castrillon Hoyos said Wednesday, according to a copy of his speech posted on the meeting’s Web site.

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the society in 1969 in Switzerland, opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, particularly its reform of the Tridentine Mass into the modern liturgy celebrated today in the vernacular.

The Second Vatican Council was a landmark event in the Roman Catholic Church, modernizing the liturgy and its relations with other faiths. Benedict attended the council as a young theological expert and has long lamented what he considers the erroneous interpretation of its work.

He has made clear he greatly admires the 16th Century rite and in a recent document urged seminarians and the faithful alike to learn Latin prayers.

The Tridentine Mass differs significantly from the new mass: It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.

Castrillon Hoyos noted that the Tridentine liturgy had never been abolished. Currently, local bishops must grant permission for priests to celebrate it — a bureaucratic obstacle that fans say has greatly limited its availability.

Castrillon Hoyos was the second Vatican official to confirm the pope’s plans in as many months.

Castrillon Hoyos gave no date of when the pope’s document would be released. It remains unclear whether the pontiff will remove the requirement that bishops must approve each celebration.

He was the third to give a confirmation, actually.  There was Card. Bertone and Card. Kasper.

At korazym.org find a piece dealing with both the Motu Proprio and the upcoming letter to Chinese Catholics.  The article says the publication of the MP is "imminent".  The author, Mattia Bianchi, states that the two documents will mark special stages in Benedict XVI’s pontificate.   The article effectively repeats what Card. Castrillon Hoyos said in Brasil. 

On the other hand, the letter to the Chinese will be "long and articulated", which perhaps means that it will be broken down into distinct sections dealing with various topics.  Apparently it will deal not only with pastoral issues, but also doctrinal.  A main point of concern will be episcopal consecrations conducted without the mandate of the Holy See.  It was expected around Easter, but translation problems held it up.  No surprise there!  The date of publication will probably be 27 May, Pentecost Sunday. 

My emphases:

Messa in latino e lettera ai cattolici cinesi. A breve, la pubblicazione dei due documenti del papa

di Mattia Bianchi/ 19/05/2007     

   Il primo servirà a favorire il disgelo con i lefebvriani, la seconda per dare voce alle problematiche pastorali e dottrinali dell’azione della Chiesa nel Paese. Con la pubblicazione imminente del motu proprio sulla liberalizzazione del rito tridentino e della lettera ai cattolici della Cina di Benedetto XVI, stanno per essere definite due tappe fondamentali del pontificato. Documenti che rispondono ad esigenze diverse, che metteranno all’ordine del giorno due ferite della storia recente della Chiesa: lo scisma compiuto da mons. Marcel Lefebvre in polemica con le novità del Concilio Vaticano II e il mancato riconoscimento da parte di Pechino del ruolo del papa e dei vescovi legati alla Santa Sede.

IL MOTU PROPRIO SUL RITO TRIDENTINO. Del documento che liberalizzerà il rito preconciliare della Messa per quanti ne faranno richiesta, ha parlato il cardinale Dario Castrillon Hoyos, presidente della Pontificia Commissione ”Ecclesia Dei”, durante il suo intervento alla Conferenza dell’episcopato latinoamericano e dei Caraibi, ad Aparecida, in Brasile. Non si tratterà di ”un ritorno all’indietro”, ha spiegato il presule, ma di ”un’offerta generosa del vicario di Cristo” che metterà ”a disposizione della Chiesa tutti i tesori della liturgia latina”, capaci da secoli di ”nutrire la vita spirituale di tante generazioni di fedeli cattolici”. Insomma, nessuna restaurazione, come ipotizzato nei mesi scorsi dai media di mezzo mondo.

Piuttosto, la volontà del papa di dare un segnale ai lefebvriani, conservando al tempo stesso “gli immensi tesori spirituali, culturali ed estetici legati alla liturgia antica”, che la Chiesa ha usato per quasi 2mila anni. Il porporato colombiano, alla guida della Commissione istituita nel 1988 da Giovanni Paolo II per favorire il ritorno nella Chiesa dei seguaci dell’arcivescovo Marcel Lefebvre, ha evidenziato il “nuovo e rinnovato interesse” per il rito latino, spiegando che proprio per questo motivo il papa “pensa che sia arrivato il tempo di facilitarne l’accesso”, come ad una delle tante forme “dell’unico rito romano”. Ancora presto per parlare dei possibili risultati legati all’apertura del papa, anche perché la questione lefebvriana non si limita a mere questioni linguistiche. Molto più spinosi i nodi legati al riconoscimento di alcuni capisaldi del Concilio, come la libertà di coscienza e religiosa e l’ecumenismo.

LA LETTERA AI CATTOLICI CINESI. Un testo lungo e articolato per parlare ai milioni di cattolici che vivono in Cina. La lettera di Benedetto XVI, annunciata il 19 e 20 gennaio, sarà pubblicata con tutta probabilità la domenica di Pentecoste (27 maggio), o poco dopo. Secondo l’agenzia Apcom, che ha anticipato la data, la missiva sviscererà tutte le problematiche della vita e della missione della Chiesa in Cina e affronterà "sia temi pastorali che dottrinali". Primo fra tutti, la questione delle ordinazioni episcopali che non potranno prescindere dalla legittimazione del papa e della Santa Sede. Benedetto XVI non vuole certo irritare le autorità di Pechino, ma spiegherà comunque il valore religioso della comunione dei vescovi con il successore di Pietro. La pubblicazione della lettera, (attesa inizialmente per Pasqua) è stata posticipata per ragioni tecniche di redazione e traduzione. Sarà infatti diffusa al contempo in cinese, italiano, francese e inglese.

….

In the Italian daily Il Messaggero we have a piece entitled "Latin Mass in the home stretch", reassuring us that a derestriction of the older Mass is not a step backward!  Thank heavens!  This article claims that the Motu Proprio has been ready for some time now.  The article suggests that the MP could come any time now.  It frames the derestriction as a removal of burocratic obstacles to those who want it.  An interesting way to put it: that would make the bishops bureaucrats, right?  It also speaks of a certain number of people having to request it.  It correctly underscores that Latin, the language, is important, but the spirituality of the older form of Mass is key.

In dirittura d’arrivo la messa in latino
«Ma non è un ritorno al passato»

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO (18 maggio) – «Non un ritorno all’indietro, ma un’offerta generosa del vicario di Cristo che metterà a disposizione della Chiesa tutti i tesori della liturgia latina, capaci da secoli di nutrire la vita spirituale di tante generazioni di fedeli cattolici».

Secondo il cardinale colombiano Dario Castrillon Hoyos, presidente della Pontificia commissione "Ecclesia Dei", è in questa ottica che va interpretato l’imminente recupero della messa in latino da parte del Papa. Dopo vari slittamenti, la pubblicazione del "motu proprio" di Benedetto XVI sul recupero della messa pre-conciliare in latino, già pronto da tempo, sembra in dirittura d’arrivo. E la conferma è arrivata proprio dal cardinale Castrillon Hoyos ad Aparecida, in Brasile, durante i lavori della quinta Conferenza dell’episcopato latinoamericano.

Il motu proprio di Benedetto XVI – secondo le anticipazioni che si sono rincorse in questi mesi – consentirebbe la celebrazione della messa in latino senza intoppi burocratici, se a richiederla è un certo numero di persone. E’ di lunga data, d’altra parte, l’attenzione di Ratzinger verso la liturgia latina, che fin da quando era cardinale, riteneva tutt’altro che abolita dal Concilio, tanto da richiederne un maggior uso all’interno della Chiesa. A interessarlo, tuttavia, non è mai stato un ritorno esteriore al latino, bensì un ritorno allo «spirito» genuino della liturgia come mistero.

Un maggior ricorso alla lingua latina, per il futuro Benedetto XVI, era da favorire anche fuori dall’ambito strettamente liturgico. In latino è stato redatto anche il Catechismo della Chiesa cattolica, pubblicato nel 1996.

«Che il testo definitivo ufficiale non sia scritto in nessuna lingua nazionale odierna – scriveva l’anno successivo – mostra che nella Chiesa tutti sono a casa loro e che non esiste nessuna cultura dominante, alla quale le altre dovrebbero misurarsi e subordinarsi». In definitiva la lingua latina, «il cui uso nella Chiesa può e deve essere ancor più incentivato, può maggiormente avvicinare tra loro popoli dalle differenti lingue e culture».

Il cardinale Castrillon Hoyos, alla guida della Commissione istituita nel 1988 da Giovanni Paolo II per favorire il ritorno nella Chiesa degli scismatici tradizionalisti seguaci dell’arcivescovo Marcel Lefebvre, ha sottolineato come essa oggi, «per volontà del Santo Padre», estenda il suo servizio «a soddisfare le giuste aspirazioni di quanti, per una sensibilità particolare e pur senza vincoli con i gruppi scismatici, desiderano mantenere viva l’antica liturgia latina nella celebrazione dell’eucaristia e degli altri sacramenti».

Benedetto XVI, «che fu per alcuni anni membro di questa Commissione – ha osservato Castrillon Hoyos – desidera che essa si converta in un organismo della Santa Sede con la finalità propria e distinta di conservare e mantenere il valore della liturgia latina tradizionale». Tuttavia – ha aggiunto – «si deve affermare con tutta chiarezza che non si tratta di un ritorno indietro, di un regresso ai tempi anteriori alla riforma del 1970. Si tratta invece di un’offerta generosa del vicario di Cristo che, come espressione della sua volontà pastorale, vuole mettere a disposizione della Chiesa tutti i tesori della liturgia latina, che nel corso dei secoli hanno nutrito la vita spirituale di tante generazioni di fedeli cattolici».

 

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29 Comments

  1. Bruno Maria says:

    If Pentecost Sunday is to be the publication date, I suppose the Holy Father sees this as something of a rebirth of the Church: The ‘old Mass’ acting as a catalyst in reforming the ‘new Mass’ and getting it more in line with what the Vatican II documents actually say. Pope John Paul II foresaw a new springtime for the Church. This might be it!

  2. Somerset '76 says:

    Mindful of everything being said here, I want to focus on the thought of what, in the Chinese context, the Pope will say about episcopal consecrations without proper Papal mandate, on account of its obvious SSPX cross-implications.

    It was, after all, the Chinese situation that caused Pius XII to increase the severity of canonical punishment of that act from suspension a divinis to excommunication. [Which, incidentally, to me implies an argument against the notion of such an act being intrinsically schismatic, i.e., that it wasn’t always seen as an excommunicable offense.] Archbishop Lefebvre, by the way, noted this historical fact in his 1988 consecrations sermon, by way of distinguishing what he was doing as qualitatively different from the Chinese Patriotic Church.

  3. Maureen says:

    As if paying attention and worshipping weren’t “active participation”! Silly reporter; tricks are for kids….

    A shame on my thinking
    How it wanders away
    It will cause me embarrassment
    on Last Judgement day.

    At psalm time it rushes forth
    on a pathway that’s odd
    running, raving, misbehaving
    in the presence of God.

    To merry women’s company
    (the unvirtuous kind),
    through wood and through cities,
    faster than the wind.

    When road is smooth it travels
    merrily and gay,
    but passes just as easily
    the impenetrable way.

    It needs no ship to journey
    and the seas go by,
    jumps with but a single leap
    from solid earth to sky.

    Put a fetter on its leg,
    chain it to prayer?
    Yes! But in a minute’s time
    it’s no longer there.

    Little use in beating it,
    plying whip or rod:
    like an eel’s tail it slips away
    from my grasp and from God.

    No chain and no dark dungeon
    will hinder its course;
    it laughs at seas and fortresses,
    is mocking of force.

    Dear Christ, lord of chastity,
    chain thinking in place
    with power of Spirit septiform
    and all His grace.

    Make, great elemental God,
    the heart be still,
    that You be my only love
    and I, Your will.

    May I come to Christ at last,
    and then to see
    that He is no unsteady thing,
    nor wandering, like me.

    — Carney’s translation of an anonymous Irish poem, “Is mebul dom imradud”, c. 1000 AD.

  4. Somerset 76 raised the point I was going to make. As I understand it, the SSPX excommunications were based on a body of canon law jurisprudence that was developed in response to the Chinese situation. It will be interesting to see if the MP and the letter to Chinese Catholics are somehow linked.

  5. Andrew says:

    Fr. Z:

    “It correctly underscores that Latin, the language, is important, but the spirituality of the older form of Mass is key.”

    It makes me a little nervous when I hear “spirituality” being separated from “Latin” as if the two could exist somehow independently of each other. Perhaps in some individual cases, spirituality can exist independently of Latin, but in a larger scale, as far as the life of the universal Church goes, Latin is an inseparable ingredient of the Church’s life. Latin itself is a source and a vehicle of holiness. It’s not just an optional form of expression, one out of many. It is indispensable. One would have to unwind twenty centuries of human existence and Church life to make it otherwise. So Latin, in my opinion, is also the key. It cannot be separated from spirituality. The sooner Catholics begin to appreciate this, the sooner they will start studying this sacred language, our Vox Materna, to use the words of Joannes XXIII. Let’s forget about “accurate” translations. Get direct access to the source! It’s not such an impossible task.

  6. I don’t think “ultraconservative” is a cliche’ – sure, there are nuttier groups than SSPX – SSPV, although they at least have the courage of their crazy convictions – and maybe soon SSPI :P – but, after extensive reading of SSPX material, and numerous SSPXers I banned from commenting on my blog (antisemitism being the main reason), I think that “ultraconservative” is too kind a description. Sure, Monsieur Fellay appears nice and polite, but there are also the full-on unstable people like the the founder or Williamson and Schmidberger. Nobody in their right mind wants that kind of bile in the Catholic Church. The so-called Tridentine Mass is just a strawman and a hostage for many radicals in said group. There may be decent, misguided people in it, but without another “schism” – ie a miraculous change of heart or, more likely, dropping people like Williamson (or leaving on their own) that sheds a large element, SSPX won’t come back, and shouldn’t.

  7. “It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.”

    And the writers goes down on strikes!

  8. “It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.”

    Three strikes and you’re out!

  9. Parochus says:

    Just a technical note: Bianchi’s Italian text gives Pentecost — or not long after — as the probable date for the Letter to the Chinese (a very fitting choice). As for the MP, however, it merely says that its publication is “imminent,” suggesting that it could come before, with or after the publication of the Chinese document.

  10. Michael says:

    “It makes me a little nervous when I hear “spirituality” being separated from “Latin” as if the two could exist somehow independently of each other. Perhaps in some individual cases, spirituality can exist independently of Latin, but in a larger scale, as far as the life of the universal Church goes, Latin is an inseparable ingredient of the Church’s life. Latin itself is a source and a vehicle of holiness. It’s not just an optional form of expression, one out of many. It is indispensable. One would have to unwind twenty centuries of human existence and Church life to make it otherwise. So Latin, in my opinion, is also the key. It cannot be separated from spirituality. The sooner Catholics begin to appreciate this, the sooner they will start studying this sacred language, our Vox Materna, to use the words of Joannes XXIII. Let’s forget about “accurate” translations. Get direct access to the source! It’s not such an impossible task.”

    I certainly would like to see the Latin Church recover its Latin heritage, but I’m an Eastern Catholic, and I know that it’s nonsense to say that [Catholic] spirituality cannot be separated from Latin. Attend any service at my parish, and then try to tell me that we’re not really Catholic.

  11. 40YrsInDesert says:

    I bristle when I reads words to the effect that the faithful don’t actively participate in the Traditional Latin Mass. Having spent 20 years attending various types of Novus Ordo Masses, and the past three years assisting at the TLM, I can assure you that I work much harder at praying the Mass in the Traditional Form. For one thing, there is plenty of quiet (even at a sung Mass), so I CAN pray, and secondly, it requires more effort!

    If it is true that the faithful don’t actively participate in the TLM, then it is also true that watching TV involves more active participation than reading a book.

  12. Henry Edwards says:

    40YrsInDesert: I agree entirely with the spirit of your observations (my experience with both rites being somewhat longer) but I might rearrange some of your clauses. I find truly active and prayerful participation far easier at a TLM. I must (and do) work much harder to participate actively in the Novus Ordo Mass (which I attend daily) to any comparable extent.

    If I don’t consciously and constantly prick myself, I’m tempted to drift off into a mode of simply watching and listening to the priest droning on at the new Mass. It’s much like watching a Mass on EWTN. It’s really the priest’s Mass, and I’m not really a participant, just a spectator.

    Whereas at the old Mass — and particularly during the silent Canon — I really do “pray the Mass” as Pius X put it, uniting myself fully with the priest and immersing myself in His prayer.

  13. Jeff says:

    I recollect in this connection that for many years, the “Patriotic Association” only allowed the Old Mass in Latin and not the reforemed post-Vatican Two liturgy! The same oddity was true in Latvia and Estonia (not Lithuania) into the late Eighties.

    I wonder if the SSPX has any chapters in China? :p

  14. Sub Umbra Mortis says:

    “It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.”

    Since when do we have to be “”doing someting” or “saying something” to actively participate. I submitt that those who attend the Pre Vatican II liturgy participate quite actively without the dissonant responses and bad music. I have never heard an attendant of the classical rite say that mass was boring. However, in the Paul VI mass I hear it all the time. I do both rites in my parish. If only the rest of my congregtion participated as well and attentively as my classical rite crowd! The classical rite is the salvation of the Church.

  15. chiara says:

    Regardint the word “active” concerning participation in the Mass. I have been told that a more accurate translation is “actual”.

    Chiara

  16. FranzJosf says:

    Jeff wrote, “I recollect in this connection that for many years, the “Patriotic Association” only allowed the Old Mass in Latin and not the reforemed post-Vatican Two liturgy! The same oddity was true in Latvia and Estonia (not Lithuania) into the late Eighties.”

    I was last in Latvia in 2003. At that time, they were celebrating the New Mass ad orientem. I didn’t see a single church with a free-standing table. About a year or so ago, I read an interview with the Cardinal Archbishop of Riga wherein he stated that even in new churches they build high altars and celebrate with great reverence. I’m glad they didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

  17. Andrew says:

    FranzJosf:

    Then again a few years ago during the Synod of Bishops in Rome it was the Cardinal Archbishop of Riga who, one of the very few, delivered his talk to the Synodal Assembly in Latin. The other used one of the various vernaculars.

  18. Ed says:

    Fr. Z, I wanted to ask a question about the Tridentine Mass but you closed the ask Father question box. So, I am going to ask it here and hope that you answer it. At a high Mass the sub-deacon holds the paten under the humeral veil in front of his eyes. I was wondering what theological significance this holds and, if you know it, it origin.

  19. JPG says:

    When I hear about “active participation” and I watch my 13 year old roll her eyes in boredom and my 48 year old wife fail to pick up or read the missalette, I wonder are we really better off? I think the sense of awe and mystery is lacking in the new rite and only the freeing of the old will help to restore it.
    JPG

  20. JPG says:

    When I hear about “active participation” and I watch my 13 year old roll her eyes in boredom and my 48 year old wife fail to pick up or read the missalette, I wonder are we really better off? I think the sense of awe and mystery is lacking in the new rite and only the freeing of the old will help to restore it.
    JPG

  21. I would like to second Edward’s question.

    More importantly than why the subdeacon holds the paten (which is because in the ancient church it was very large and had food-stuffs on it from the offerings of the faithful, and so needed to be taken from the altar–and keep covered to keep off insects).

    But why is it that the subdeacon uncovers and elevates it during the Pater Noster?

    No book I have ever consulted explains that.

  22. Julie says:

    Just an observation, and this really sticks in my craw.

    This article was published on Fox News, and while it’s pretty good for a secular source, this is the phrase that absolutely kills me:

    “The Tridentine Mass differs significantly from the new mass: It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.

    First of all, the priest is facing God, spiritually, and offering prayers on behalf of everyone to God alone…he is not addressing us, as much as the egocentric populace would like everyone to believe and as much as I grew up believing myself. This particular posture is so theologically incorrect it makes me cringe every time I attend Mass…not because of the position, but because until so recently I didn’t “get it” and didn’t even CONSIDER who the priest was addressing because it seemed, by his posture and his orientation that he was addressing the “faithful”. (Sorry to put that in quotes…but there it is.)

    The second part…of my rant…

    “the rank and file do not participate actively…”

    What a bunch of ignorant nonsense!

    While I have never attended a Tridentine Mass, I have to say in response…what is standing and kneeling and standing again? Is that not “active”?

    The problem is that modern society defines “active” as the following: “using an electronic device to interface with another computerized icon”.

    The reality as that anyone can actively participate in the Mass by FOLLOWING THE MISSAL and KNEELING AND STANDING where APPROPRIATE.

    I don’t have to attend a Tridentine Mass to understand such a basic concept.

    I’m so afraid for the human race…apparently logic and realization are now gifts attributed only to research chimps, and even they could learn this stuff if given the opportunity…

    /rant

    (I don’t comment much but I do read…and please forgive me, Father, for I have ranted….)

  23. Legisperitus says:

    Fr. Thompson:

    Not sure how directly helpful this is, but the Rev. Victor Hintgen’s book What the Mass Means says this:

    “In solemn Masses you have noticed the sub-deacon with the vellum over his shoulders standing on the floor of the sanctuary in the center. He is holding the empty paten, the saucer-like golden plate. In the first six centuries of the Church, it was on this plate that the hosts were collected and distributed to the people at Holy Communion. But when this custom ended, in order that the paten might not be in the way of the priest at the altar (for it was very large in former days), the sub-deacon would take care of it until it was needed again. During the Our Father it is brought to the altar again for it is to be used very soon to receive the Sacred Host.

    “Another explanation is sometimes given. In the first centuries, the sub-deacon held on the paten a small piece of the Sacred Host from the Mass of the previous day. At the entry of the officers of the Mass for the sacrifice, This was adored. A fraction of the Host was always kept for the next Mass when it was dropped into the Precious Blood. This expressed the unity of the Mass, linking every Sacrifice to the first instituted at the Last Supper.”

  24. Jordan Potter says:

    FranzJosf said: “I was last in Latvia in 2003. At that time, they were celebrating the New Mass ad orientem. I didn’t see a single church with a free-standing table. About a year or so ago, I read an interview with the Cardinal Archbishop of Riga wherein he stated that even in new churches they build high altars and celebrate with great reverence. I’m glad they didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

    That situation, and the situation that one found in China, is a consequence of Communist tyranny closing up the society to the outside world. Although it means Christianity suffers terrible persecution and injustice, it also tends to fix the culture in amber. So, indirectly the great evil of Communism led to some good things in certain places.

  25. RBrown says:

    It makes me a little nervous when I hear “spirituality” being separated from “Latin” as if the two could exist somehow independently of each other.
    Comment by Andrew

    It makes me more nervous when Romanitas is separated from Latinitas.

  26. Jeff says:

    Not as bad as Latinitas separated from Romanitas.

    The root can always grow another flower. The flower, separated from the root, withers.

  27. RBrown says:

    Not as bad as Latinitas separated from Romanitas.

    The root can always grow another flower. The flower, separated from the root, withers.

    ??????

  28. Jeff says:

    I mean, RBrown, that the Latinity of the Church is of no use if not grounded in its Roman-ness. If you have Latin and all its august majesty without the Rock of Peter to cleave to, you have nothing.

  29. RBrown says:

    I mean, RBrown, that the Latinity of the Church is of no use if not grounded in its Roman-ness. If you have Latin and all its august majesty without the Rock of Peter to cleave to, you have nothing.

    I agree to an extent, but Latin is the instrument of mutual communication between the Apostolic See and the Churches (Veterum Sapientia). And so it is unlikely that the root can grow another flower because Latin is the way the root nourishes the flower.

    Further, Latinitas is more than just august majesty. It is a certain wisdom of life, represented in the language itself and in Plautus, Cicero, Caesar, Virgil, Horace, and the other Latin authors who are the heralds of “the dawn of the the Gospel”(VS).

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