Why does the Catholic Church retain Latin?

Answer 1

Latin is a dead language, it is spoken nowhere in the world. Word meanings do not change as they do in a 'living' language. They are frozen in time, so to speak. That way, documents written in, say, the 12th century will have the same meaning in the 21st century.

Answer 2

Some believe that the medieval Church said The Bible and church services should be in Latin so that parishioners would rely on the clergy for their interpretation. Tyndale was executed for producing the first English translation of the Bible, although two years later, with his move towards separation from Catholicism, Henry VIII ordered the use of an English translation.

Answer 3

Latin is the language of the Latin rite Church, which is the biggest branch of Catholics, but there are other "Rites" as they are called, their services are in Greek, Aramaic, etc. Initially the Western Rite used Latin so that the common people could understand, as up until that time, all of the services, and the Bible were in Greek. Latin is still the language of the Latin Rite, although different countries have an indult to use a vernacular translation for most of the prayers.

Answer 4

Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the Catholic Church.

Catholics pray in their native tongue, when they are using vocal prayers. The most common form of prayer for beginners is meditation, and I suppose that we all use our native language when we are thinking about God and religion, as well.

The native tongue for the early Church was Greek, although Latin quickly took over, especially in the fourth century when Christianity was no longer illegal. When we came "above ground" so to speak, the Church spread rapidly through the empire, and the only common language that everyone knew was Latin. As we got further away from the first century, Greek became much more rare. St. Jerome translated the Scriptures from Greek into Latin so that all people would be able to access them. For the same reason, the Mass was in Latin so that it was uniform over the entire nation. Please note that this was only in the Latin Rite Church. The other Rites continued in their native tongue, and most of the Eastern Rites are still in Greek, Coptic, or another of the original languages. Religious language changes very slowly, if at all.

Then, just as printing was invented, and more of the common folk were being educated and learning to read and write, the protestant revolt happened. The reaction of the Church was very conservative, and things froze for nearly five hundred years in reaction to this growing heresy.

It is only in the last century, with Vatican Council II, that the Church has tried to reach out to the lost souls who are descended from that horrible rupture in the Church, and in doing so, has moved most of the liturgical Rites into the common tongue of the people.

It is a mixed blessing, but there it is.

Answer 5

When Catholicism rapidly spread through the empire back in the first millennium, the only common language that all educated people could read and speak was Latin, it was the common language that all people shared. The Scriptures were translated into Latin and Latin became the official language of the Church and has remained so until this day. One of the best things about this is that since it is no longer a living language, it does not change the frightening pace that modern spoken languages do. For instance, I am 60 years old and the English language that is spoken now in many cases means exactly the opposite of what I grew up with. So the Mass is in Latin as the standard language of the Church and we know what it means, what the words mean, and the theological concepts behind each.

Answer 6

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