« Latin as a liturgical language »

[MykeSoBe]

Do you think it's odd or wrong that Latin is used as the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic church? I personally don't think so, for many reasons, which I will provide below, but this idea happened to come across my head.

I mean, it's like the Romans were the first people to persecute Christians, yet their language happens to be the fist official language of Roman Catholicism. This is the only unjust thing I see about it though. All the positive reasons follow ...

First, Latin is the root language of the Romance languages; it's almost like Esperanto, the constructed language made by the Polish philologist Dr. Zamenhof. Also, in a religion with more than a billion followers, including myself, there has to be a uniform standard in which all prayers can be recited.

[Sage]

Not really. Christianity wants to spread itself to as many people as possible. Latin was the common language of the Roman Empire and so they adopted it. You know what else is funny? Chirstians use the roman cross as their symbol, and it's actually a symbol of torture. Jesus was by no means the first to ever be crucified.

[quartermaster]

You know what else is funny? Chirstians use the roman cross as their symbol, and it's actually a symbol of torture. Jesus was by no means the first to ever be crucified.

The point of the cross was not the fact that Jesus was special in being crucified (considering many others were crucified before and after him; for goodness sakes, Jesus was crucified with two other individuals), it was to never forget his sacrifice. Just food for thought...

[Perseus]

Do you think it's odd or wrong that Latin is used as the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic church? I personally don't think so, for many reasons, which I will provide below, but this idea happened to come across my head.

I mean, it's like the Romans were the first people to persecute Christians, yet their language happens to be the fist official language of Roman Catholicism. This is the only unjust thing I see about it though. All the positive reasons follow ...

First, Latin is the root language of the Romance languages; it's almost like Esperanto, the constructed language made by the Polish philologist Dr. Zamenhof. Also, in a religion with more than a billion followers, including myself, there has to be a uniform standard in which all prayers can be recited.

Latin was the same as English is now. It was the common language of the time and not everyone knew like French and German, so they just adopted Latin and most people were taught that as well as some other languages. It's a shame tat Latin died, though. I would like to have a conversation with someone like everyday in Latin. English confuses me and I've known all my life. English has been tampered with too much and some words make no sense when it comes to literal speaking, but I'm starting to ramble on, now.

[sebbie]

I think it is fine for all Catholics to use Latin for religious practice, Islam uses primarily Arabic.

Essentially it would come down to all the followers of the faith from whatever country being able to worship together with less communication problems.

[YourFriend]

Yap i think it's fine to use Latin.

[Cromm]

I think it's ironic that after centuries of feeding Christians to the lions, Catholisim became the dominant religion of Italy; and Rome the centre of the Church. But wrong? No.

By the by... The reason for using latin in the first place was to make Mass the same no matter where you travelled. The service would be the same in France as it would in Brazil. But latin hasn't been used in Mass since the second Vatican Council came together in the '60s. Now it's in whatever language the congregation speaks.

:)

[MykeSoBe]

Yeah I still recite a few prayers in Latin, such as "De Profundis." Most of them I recite in Italian though since that was the language in which I learnt them. I believe it's cool that Latin is the liturgical language, just that I found it a bit ironic. I figured this would be an interesting debate topic though.

[Cromm]

Yeah I still recite a few prayers in Latin....
Really? That's interesting. I grew up Roman Catholic and I never heard a word of latin, in school or chruch! ... hmmm....

Neat. :)

[sebbie]

Really? That's interesting. I grew up Roman Catholic and I never heard a word of latin, in school or chruch! ... hmmm....

Neat. :)

I know the Catholic church near me and most of their services are in English but for special occasions, and holy days they whip out the Latin, gives a more traditional theme.

[MykeSoBe]

Really? That's interesting. I grew up Roman Catholic and I never heard a word of latin, in school or chruch! ... hmmm....

Neat. :)

Latin is used occasionally in my parish church, though I've only heard it on the most religious of days. Plus, being Italian, we have more traditional customs. (Italian and Latin are the two official languages of the Vatican) And when we watch the Pope on television, he recites certain prayers in Latin. I love Latin for the most part.

[Reality]

Semperrrrr fidelis.

[MykeSoBe]

Semperrrrr fidelis.

Yeah thank you for supporting our Marines!

[Cromm]

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

[liveyoungdiefast]

I'm an ex-Catholic and really could care less.

Whatever language, the business of church should be taxed :)

[Techno Monster]

Nope, latin is fine, it is quite bono.

[aranh]

I like latin mass but i know the Second Vatican Council changed it to the the own country language but then if you go to mass in another county you don't know where you are that why lain mass is useful.

[ImCoolBeans]

Please don't bump old threads :locked: