Guy's Books and Thoughts

The CATHOLIC SUNDAY MISSAL (pg 12-13), written about 1956, before the
changes of Vatican II, states that Latin is used not because it is
necessary, but to insure uniformity of worship throughout the world.
If memory serves me correctly, the explanation I heard from the
Society of Pius X group is that someone from Korea could worship with
someone from the United States using the Tridentine Mass in Latin. I
think the book is saying that the mass in Latin shows the universality
or Catholicity of the church: i.e. unity. The Orthodox have taken a
different approach and offered the mass in the language of the people,
which I think shows the diversity of the church. Unfortunately the
language of the people in the Orthodox churches has changed over the
years. Russians and other Slavic groups no longer speak Slavonic.
Modern Greek is not the same as the Greek of Biblical time.

I can see the point of emphasizing the universality of the church.
However, I thought the other arguments for the use of Latin, such as
it being ancient and unchanging to be unconvincing. The same missal
mentions the Greek litany of the Kyrie (Kyrie Eleison, Christe
Eleison) stating this reminds the worshiper of the first centuries
of the Christian church when the entire mass was said in Greek (pg
25). I doubt if the argument of the ancient nature of the Latin
language would have carried much weight with worshipers in the early
church when the language switched from Greek to Latin. Well the
point of the use of Latin is moot, since Vatican II allowed the mass
to be said in the language of the people. I would not say this is a
break with tradition, since practice is in line with the Orthodox
church which is as ancient as the Roman Catholic church.

I think those who insist on Latin are missing the principle. Latin
became the universal language of Western Europe. It superseded Greek,
which was the universal language of the Roman Empire (at least where
the church was located). The New Testament was written in Greek.
Later the New Testament and Old Testament were translated into Latin
by Saint Jerome. It was called the Vulgate. My guess is the Latin of
Jerome was not classical Latin, but Latin of the people.

For better or worse, English has become the universal language. It is
used in India for business. Chinese who cannot understand each other�s
dialects have used English to communicate. I also remember seeing one
Japanese drama entitled �Five� in which the Chinese and Japanese
ladies spoke to each other in English. A Spanish fan of a Japanese
anime series explained that the reason why their website was in
English and Japanese instead of Spanish, was so they could communicate
with foreign fans of that series.

So to show the universality of the church, I propose that the mass all
over the world should be said in English. At one time French was the
universal language. If I had been writing in earlier times, I would
have proposed that the mass be said in French. But since English has
taken the place of Latin or French as the universal language, I
propose English as the language of the mass.