Small Catholic

Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church

Why a dead language? How is that a good thing?

There are lots of historical connections between the Catholic Church and Latin, but today we would say that Latin is a dead language (sometimes even as an insult). Because Latin is no longer spoken commonly, unlike English (which adds new words and new meanings to old words regularly), Latin has stopped evolving. Because it’s a dead language (and not spoken commonly) it offers universality and stability.

Universality of Latin in Today’s World:

When Pope Leo XIV was elected last May, I followed a lot of stories about it on Instagram. People joyfully running through the streets of Rome toward St. Peter’s Square to hear the news, seminarians and students gathered around TVs excitedly hearing and responding to the news. It was the most beautiful 24 hours I’ve ever experienced on social media. Little video clips from all over the world will people overflowing with joy. They spoke different languages, but all shared the excitement and the phrase “Habemus Papam”. I think the news of a new pope would hit a lot differently today if we heard it in one chosen language that seemed to favor one culture and country.

When you know even a little bit of liturgical Latin, it provides a bridge when going to Mass in other parts of the world AND it often provides a linguistic bridge from English to the liturgy in other languages. For example:

Stability:

Because Latin is no longer evolving like English is, a Latin text is unlikely to change in meaning over 50 years or 500 years. For example, “Holy Spirit” in Latin is “Spiritus Sanctus”, and as far as I know, that term has never had to be updated in Latin. But we know that in English, they used to translate “Spiritus Sanctus” as “Holy Ghost”.

Latin in other Disciplines:

Latin is still provides terminology to many fields, including science, medicine, law and mottoes.

Some particular Latin words (and derivatives) used by the Catholic Church:

Magnificat – This word literally means “magnifies”, which is a key word at the beginning of Mary’s Canticle from the story of the Visitation (Luke 1:46-55). We often use this Latin term to name the whole prayer.

missa – The words “Mass” and “Missal” are related to the Latin word “missa” which means “sent”. The last words of the priest in Latin are “Ite, Missa Est”, which is usually translated “Go, the Mass is ended”, but a more literal translation would be “Go, he is sent.” It would at least be fair to understand this as being sent with Jesus in our hearts out to the world. Missa is also related to the English words missive and missile. I rather like the image of being sent with the urgency of a missile to transform the world by bringing Christ to the world.