Latin means centralisation

by Letters Editor · December 13, 2012

From�Rino Nicky, Hilton, KZN

In regard to your November 21 headline �Latinam loquemur!� ��what a gaffe!�Latinam makes the language a female ��a big mistake even in our feminist-sensitive society. Latinus is an adjective, not a noun. Lingua latina is the Latin language, Sermo latinus is Latin speech.

A copy of the Borgianus Latinus, a missal for Christmas made for Pope Alexander VI, is displayed in an exhibit on the Vatican Library. Pope Benedict has established the Pontifical Academy of Latinity to promote the study of the Latin language and culture. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Loquor is an intransitive deponent verb that cannot take a direct object. The correct expression is adverbial, Latine. The language is not considered a noun, but a �mode of expression�.

Latine loquemur! means �Let�s speak in the fashion of the Latin people!� In the multilingual confessional setting of the Roman basilicas it reads: Latine loquitur (�One speaks in the Latin fashion�).

My own two-cents�-worth reflection on Pope Benedict�s effort to re-establish Latin as the official language of the Church: is it part of a utopian plan aimed at further centralisation?

The Church is universal and comprises thousands of languages, each entitled to be the means of expression of faith and worship.

Furthermore, it is now possible to have translation of documents in any language in real time.

Hankering after a dead language as a universal means of communication seems to demonstrate a skewed perception of unity, and a waste of time.

In Africa and many parts of the world most students for the priesthood are the fruit of inadequate school systems, and most foreign instructors lack the knowledge of local languages to be passionate about integrating the Christian message with local ways of worshipping God and of living Christianity in a genuine indigenous way.

Efforts at inculturation and decentralisation seem to be considered with suspicion in the Vatican, as contrary to its centralisation policy manifested in the desired return to Latin.