Why Latin?
The use of the Latin language, customary in a considerable portion of the Church, is a manifest and beautiful sign of unity, as well as an effective antidote for any corruption of doctrinal truth.
- Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei
The Catholic Church is a global church. Even the word catholic, which means universal, communicates that it is the Church for all God’s people. The universal Church needs a universal language to communicate the great gift of the Gospel to all the world and even throughout time. Not only was the the use of Latin not a barrier to the Church’s mission throughout the farthest corners of the world but Latin also serves as a strong unifying force.
The Latin language has always been held in very high esteem by the Catholic Church and by the Roman Pontiffs. They have assiduously encouraged the knowledge and dissemination of Latin, adopting it as the Church’s language, capable of passing on the Gospel message throughout the world. This is authoritatively stated by the Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia of my Predecessor, Blessed John XXIII.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Latina Lingua
The Latin language serves not only to unite people of all the world’s culture within Christ’s Church but is also a language made sacred by centuries of use within the Church and also by being one of the three languages in which the charge against Christ was written on the cross, “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (INRI)“.