Why Latin?
Question: Why use Latin in the Liturgy? Why shouldn't the Church use the national language of each country so everyone can understand what is going on? Latin is a strange tongue to the vast majority of worshippers.
Answer: The Catholic Church is not a national church; it is a Church for all nations under the sun. Universality is one of the marks by which it is distinguished from all other churches bearing the name Christian. Hence a universal language is necessary in its public worship. One hundred years ago, before English became a common language in international business life, the lack of a universal language was much deplored, and various attempts had been made to invent one. For the Catholic Church, in which the necessity of such a language is more urgent, a universal language has been providentially supplied. The possession of a common language is essential, not to the existence of the Church, but to its well-being.
In the epistle to the Hebrews, V., I., you will find these words, "Every Priest is ordained for men in the things that pertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins." A Priest has two chief duties: to offer sacrifice to God, and to sanctify men by his teaching and instruction. At a traditional Mass, when a priest is speaking, not to men, but to God in the name of men, he speaks in the language of the Church - in Latin - a language God certainly understands. When on the other hand he speaks to the people he speaks in their own language; sermons are never given in Latin.
Remember, the Catholic religion does not consist merely in preaching and the singing of hymns. She has an official liturgical worship, of which the chief element is the Sacrifice of the Mass which is offered to God, and not to the people. And for this official worship she uses her official liturgical language - Latin, which being a dead language, is not subject to the constant changes of meaning which we find in all living languages. For this reason the Jews today still use Hebrew in their Synagogues as in the old Jewish law, where the high priest retired to the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice, and the people assisted in spirit, each praying his own prayers.
What does this mean in the actual life of the Church? In the first place, the words of the Mass are fixed, stereotyped, and in the more essential parts of the Mass are as ancient as the Church itself. They remain unchanged because they are so intimately connected with the unchangeable sacrifice. Now the greater the tendency to multiply vernacular versions the greater the danger of departing from the meaning of the original, and the Church, for the best of reasons, has always been jealous of any changes in her consecrated formulae.
Secondly, the use of one language in the Mass is a matter of convenience amounting to almost a necessity. There is scarcely a single passage in the text of the Mass that is not a subject of rubrical legislation. The decisions of Roman congregations and the writings of rubricists on the language of the Mass are volumnious. In dealing not with one language but hundreds, difficulties would multiply indefinitely. Another advantage of a universal liturgical language is that a Catholic traveling in any part of the world would feel right at home going to a Mass said in Latin. As one priest wrote before Vatican II, "If an Anglican minister celebrated his English service in a remote Japanese village, because he knew no Japanese, the villagers would be sadly puzzled. If I went there, the moment I began the Latin Mass, every Japanese Catholic would feel quite at home, for I would offer Mass as every Japanese Catholic priest offers Mass."
The stock objection against the use of Latin is that it is not understood by the congregation. This objection was never made by any one who who was familiar with Catholic life and devotion. Did the objector ever see a Catholic congregation hearing Mass? Did he ever see the people approaching the altar-rail to receive holy communion? If he did he must have been convinced that language was an insignificant thing compared with the great Action that was being performed. Our separated brethren have lost their grasp of the idea of sacrifice as connected with religion. They know nothing of the great Action by which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated in an un-bloody form. To them language is everything, and consequently the linguistic objection appeals to them with double force.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Didn't Vatican II do away with Latin in the Liturgy?
With the noticeable absence of Latin in the typical parish one must conclude that this is the case. However, what Vatican II said was: "Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites." Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Par. 36
Do worshippers understand all that the priest says in the Latin Mass?
Not all Catholics understand Latin, by any means. But they are all quite at home when assisting at Mass. They know what is being done, even though they cannot understand all that is being said. However every Catholic can know what the Priest is saying by simply following along in a prayer book called a missal, which has the English and Latin words side by side in columns.
Taken and adapted from Radio Replies - Tan Publishing, and The Catholic's Ready Answer - Benziger Brothers
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