Ancient Rome lives on in The Church 

 Ancient Rome Lives 

Ancient Rome lives on, in a very real sense, in the Catholic Church. Not as a political entity, of course. Not the gladiatorial games, either, which declined rapidly after the official advent of Christianity in 313 AD. Rome enacted a permanent ban in 404 AD. After the collapse of the Roman state in western Europe in the 5th century, the Church inherited the vanished Empire’s role as a civilizing and unifying force. The Church “baptized” the best parts of ancient Rome and incorporated them into a new Christian Europe. The vast treasury of pagan Roman literature that we possess today, for example, would have been lost without the labor of Christian monks in their scriptoria.

Now, the Church did not preserve these things from an antiquarian interest. Christians continued using the good things from the past without interruption. A good, concrete (literally) example is the Pantheon in Rome. Originally it was a temple to all the pagan gods. It became a church, however. A church it remains, and the perfect hemisphere of its dome still rises 142 above its marble floor, nineteen centuries later.

 The Official Language 

Likewise the Latin language. It was the everyday language of Rome when Christianity first arrived. Within a few centuries, it became the language of the liturgy throughout Western Europe. It was the language of instruction in the Church’s schools. These were the only schools, so everyone with any formal instruction knew Latin. The same was true of the Universities in places such as Bologna, Paris, and Oxford that grew under the Church’s aegis later in the Middle Ages. As a result, Latin also became the language of government, literature, law, medicine, science, and so on.

Now, all these fields conduct their business in the local vernacular today. Their technical vocabularies, however, rely heavily on Latin or Latin-derived words. As for the Church, Latin is still the official language. It was the only language of the liturgy in the Western Church from sometime in the 4th century up until a mere sixty years ago. And while Catholics have heard and prayed the Mass mostly in their local languages since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Latin remains the official language of the Mass.

 Latin After Vatican II 

My purpose in this series is discuss the proper role of the Latin language in the post-Vatican II Church. Happily, I can rely on better minds than mine for this discussion. In a recent article I began looking at Pope John XXIII’s Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia. Latin in the Church, as it happens, is his topic. Pope John published the document on February 22, 1962, a few months before the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Some people may find it surprising that the pope who called Vatican II was a major promoter of the use of Latin.  That, however, is the whole point of Veterum Sapientia (“The Wisdom of the Elders”).  “ We . . . are fully determined,” says Pope John, “to restore this language to its position of honor, and to do all We can to promote its study and use.”  

John XXIII employs a variety of arguments in support of this position.  He starts by relating the argument of Pope Pius XI that Latin is an ideal language for the Church because it’s  universal, immutable and non-vernacular. I examine those arguments in my previous article.

 Reasons for Promoting and Preserving 

Pope John also provides some reasons of his own for preserving and promoting Latin. He also issues some directives for implementing his wishes. You may find some of these surprising.

But first, Pope John argues that Latin is an extremely effective means of sharpening the intellect. He says that:

There can be no doubt as to the formative and educational value either of the language of the Romans or of great literature generally. It is a most effective training for the pliant minds of youth. It exercises, matures and perfects the principal faculties of mind and spirit. It sharpens the wits and gives keenness of judgment. It helps the young mind to grasp things accurately and develop a true sense of values. It is also a means for teaching highly intelligent thought and speech. (John XXIII, VS)

For this reason, as well as the religious reasons listed above, he says:

. . . before Church students begin their ecclesiastical studies proper they shall be given a sufficiently lengthy course of instruction in Latin by highly competent masters  . . .

He accompanies this with a stern directive to “Bishops and superiors-general of religious orders”  to:

. . .take pains to ensure that in their seminaries and in their schools where adolescents are trained for the priesthood, all shall studiously observe the Apostolic See’s decision in this matter and obey these Our prescriptions most carefully.

 The Utmost Facility and Clarity 

Pope John doesn’t leave it at that. He goes on to direct that:

In the exercise of their paternal care they shall be on their guard lest anyone under their jurisdiction, eager for revolutionary changes, writes against the use of Latin in the teaching of the higher sacred studies or in the Liturgy, or through prejudice makes light of the Holy See’s will in this regard or interprets it falsely.

Pope John next orders that

. . . the traditional method of teaching this language shall be completely restored. Such is Our will, and there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about the necessity of keeping a strict watch over the course of studies followed by Church students . . .

That’s not all.  In Veterum Sapientia, Pope John XXIII does not merely direct future priests to learn Latin.  He requires them to learn in Latin:

. . . the major sacred sciences shall be taught in Latin, which, as we know from many centuries of use, “must be considered most suitable for explaining with the utmost facility and clarity the most difficult and profound ideas and concepts.”

Clearly, Pope Saint John XXIII didn’t call the Second Vatican Council in order to “abolish” Latin.  

 What the Council Said 

And in fact the council did nothing of the sort.  Vatican II addressed the matter in its first major document, Sacrosanctum  Concilium.  SC did allow some use of vernacular languages in the liturgy, saying:

. . . since the use of the vernacular whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or in other parts of the liturgy, may frequently be of great advantage to the people, a wider use may be made of it, especially in readings, directives and in some prayers and chants. (SC 36)  

The clear intent of the council, however, was that Latin would remain the primary language of the mass:

The use of the Latin language, with due respect to particular law, is to be preserved in the Latin rites. (SC 36)

and

Nevertheless care must be taken to ensure that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them. (SC 54)

 The Reform of the Liturgy 

Pope John died the next year, however, and the Council moved on to other issues as the growing craziness of the sixties engulfed the world, and the Church along with it. By the time of the reform of the liturgy at the end of the decade, the actual provisions of Sacrosanctum Concilium were largely forgotten. The Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia was not even a distant memory. Most of Pope John’s directives never saw the light of day.  

All but one, in fact, and that one had to wait fifty years.  At the end of the document, Pope John directs “the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities to set up a Latin Academy staffed by an international body of Latin and Greek professors.”  Pope Benedict XVI established the Pontifical Academy for Latin in November 2012.  Next month we’ll let Pope Benedict lay out his argument for the Latin language in his decree announcing the academy.

Christian Latin: Ave Regina Caelorum

If you’re interested in Medieval or Christian Latin, you might enjoy the post below from the blog Spes in Domino. It briefly discusses both the history of the prayer/hymn Ave Regina Caelorum, and also some specific Latin language aspects.

Hail, Queen! Ave Regina Caelorum