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OXONIENSIS - 700 AD
LATIN STUDIES
The use of Latin is a means of maintaining unity in the Church. Latin, as the language of the Church, unites all nations, making them members of God's family, of Christ's kingdom. The altar on earth is a type of the heavenly Jerusalem where a great multitude of all peoples and tongues stand around the throne, praising God.
If Latin were not the official language of the Church, deliberations and discussions among bishops assembled at the councils, the mutual exchange of opinions between theologians would be impossible. Moreover, the use of Latin, the language of ancient Rome, is a constant reminder of our dependence on the Holy Roman Church; it recalls to our minds involuntarily the fact that thence, from the Mother Church, the first missionaries who brought the faith to our shores.
The use of a dead language is a safeguard against many evils; it is not subject to change, but remains the same to all time. Languages in a daily use undergo a continual process of change; words drop out, or their meaning is altered as years go on. If a living language were employed in divine worship, heresies and errors would inevitably creep into the Church, and sacred words would be employed in an irreverent or mocking manner by the unbeliever.
The reason why the whole of the Mass is in Latin is because it is a sacrifice, not an instruction for the people. And if, as some would wish, all the services were conducted in the language of the country, persons of another nationality, not conversant with other languages, might be led to drop their religion on leaving their own land. Another evil consequence upon such a change would be a lessening of the respect felt for the holy sacrifice, as was proved at the time of the reformation, when the prayers of the Mass were, to a great extent, translated into German and English.
-- Rev. Francis Spirago (1899)
Professor of Theology
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