applebuilder

What is the official language of the Roman Catholic Church? More specifically, what language is spoken between Roman Catholic monks on a day to day basis? Is Latin used primarily for ceremonial purposes?

Alex III

Well of course Ecclesial Latin is the language of the Catholic Church, and all monks and higher members of the clergy would need a knowledge of this Latin.

It would be used for ceremonial purposes on occasion, but nowadays most verbal communication, either between members of the church or at mass are done in the vernacular. Most catholic texts are also printed in the vernacular.

During the medieval period and in early modern Europe, this was not the case and Latin was used at mass although those attending could get texts that were translated in the vernacular. But in modern times a variety of languages are used to communicate in the Catholic Church, but Latin still does remain its official language.

tjadams

If I'm not mistaken, masses used to be held in Latin, with the priest's back to the congregation, till the 1960s. Now, it's all in English, but with the exploding Hispanic population in the US, diocese now offer masses in both languages.

sturm

There are three languages - greek, hebrew, latin.
This was the reason why my country Bulgaria chosed to become orthodox country instead of catholic. Slavic language was not biblical, how can we learn religion, if we dont read on our own language?
During 9 century, there was battle between Byzantium, and the new German kingdom, to win the slavic countrys on there site.
The two brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, were send as emissaries in the slavic countrys alongside with there students, to teach the slavic country orthodox religion, and glagolic alphabet (which after only a few years was changed new, the cyrilic, used even today).

Bellarmine

The official language of the Holy Roman Church is the Latin language, whether for liturgical purposes such as Holy Mass and Divine Office, whether for official documents such as encyclicals or catechisms.

It's true that the knowledge of Latin has sharply declined amongst the clergy since the Second Vatican Council but it's still required as part of the priestly formation and it's slowly returning to its proper place due to the increase in numbers of traditional clergy.

The Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) almost went into oblivion after the Pauline liturgical reform of 1970 that fabricated a new liturgy closely resembling the protestant anglican and lutheran services. The fact, though, is that the TLM couldn't be abolished in the first place according to liturgical law, as a commission of cardinals "found out" in 1984. So, largely due to the traditional resistance within some sectors of the Church, the Mass never actually disappeared and is slowly gaining ground to the modernist liturgy.

I know this from first hand experience since I attend the TLM at a small chapel.

Bellarmine

Preaching isn't done in Latin in the first place. The evangelization of new peoples is done according to the local languages as often as possible. The language used for Holy Mass (like Latin, Greek or Church Slavonic) is especially set apart from the vernacular since the primary purpose of liturgy is the public act worship due to God and not exactly catechesis. The part reserved for that is the sermon which is done in the vernacular.

Furthermore, the Bulgarians were evangelized by St. Cyril and St. Metodius, as you pointed out, both of them having been sent from the See of Constantinople. The fact that Bulgaria sided with the Eastern schismatics was not due to issues of language but of political (and ecclesiastical) convenience. A tragedy indeed.

applebuilder

So the majority population of the vatican (including the Pope) converse in Italian?

tjadams

I found an interesting link here. It explains a lot.
http://www.catholiclatinmass.org/tra...atin-mass.html

sturm

That is true, yet bulgarian khan (still khan, not tzar), send a message to the catholic church with many questions regarding, the life of a christians, the pope returned all the answers, but you know how diplomacy with the Byzantineempire is. They tend to be very persuasive, they offered lands, etc.
The students of Cyril and Methodius came here, some of them were made archbishop's, even one of them Climent of Ohrid, made the cyrilic, an easy version of Cyril and Methodius glagolic alhpabet, cyrilic is used today by the slavonic countrys.
Why do you think it was a tragedy, the exeptance of orthodox faith rather then catholic?

Bellarmine

Yes.

I believe french is also popular due to diplomatic reasons.