The President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi certainly did not mince his words when criticising a certain section of the Catholic Church. Ravasi reiterated that the Pontifical Academy for Latin (just established by Benedict XVI) does not represent a return to something obsolete.
Established last 10 November with the Apostolic Letter “Latina Lingua”, the new academy has one clear aim: “To foster deeper knowledge and a more competent use of the Latin language, both in an ecclesiastical context and in the wider world of culture.”
Ravasi expounds further about the real reach of this initiative.
What is the significance of the creation of this Pontifical Academy for Latin?
“Our aim is not just to revive the great heritage of the past, which is composed of culture, literature, ideas, theology and philosophy in Latin, but to bring Latin back into the seminaries, offer seminarians the possibility to understand the original texts of core documents and possibly even a page of two from the writings of the Church Fathers. On the other hand, we would also like schools in all countries to rediscover Latin, because it helps in understanding contemporary culture, given that its structure aids thinking.”
How is it possible to avoid this being seen as an academic exercise, a return to things that are obsolete?
“First of all we need to start asking the so-called “traditionalists” to go over their Latin, because they often want masses to be celebrated in Latin, but it is likely they do not know the language that well. I myself have witnessed cases in which some of them did celebrate the rite of mass or the liturgy in Latin with great strength but were unable to work out certain specific aspects of the language. Western culture is based on Latin, particularly that of the Mediterranean languages. This is also the case with legal and scientific language: the names of medicines still derive from Latin today. High culture in general needs Latin in order to understand the deeper meaning of some words, of one’s own language. But, above all, the use of Latin pushes humans to use their rationality more and think in more rigorous manner.”
This Academy will substitute the Vatican foundation “Latinitas” which has in fact not been working very well for about a year now. How will this new initiative avoid the pitfalls of the previous one?
“It was a small circle that was trying to revive the use of Latin, but the practical use of this language is only functional in certain specific contexts. You cannot talk in Latin: as a language it is dead. It can still be applied in some formulations and expressions or as a solemn language of the Church, on certain occasions. We must remember that this Academy will be made up of academics from all across the world who speak different languages: from Australia to the United States, to Canada. There will be many champions of the past and its values spread about that will want to reintroduce these.”