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Given that Ralph McInerny's book What Went Wrong with Vatican II: The Catholic Crisis Explained has recently been bandied about (see Who Said: "God Did Not Become Man in Order for Man to Become a Theologian''? and What is meant by "Catholic Truths" in Ott's «Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma»?), I would like to point out that at the beginning of that book on pg. 7, one finds:

It is forgotten now that early in his papacy he [Pope John XXIII] issued a directive requiring Latin to be fully restored as the language of instruction in seminaries and pontifical institutions.

QUESTION: Specifically, what was the directive of the said Pope fully restoring Latin as the language of instruction in seminaries and pontifical institutions; and was it ever followed? What is its status today?

GratefulDisciple
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DDS
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He's probably referring to John XXIII's 1962 encyclical Veterum Sapientia: On the Promotion of the Study of Latin:

In accordance with numerous previous instructions, the major sacred sciences shall be taught in Latin […] professors of these sciences in universities or seminaries are required to speak Latin and to make use of textbooks written in Latin.

The study of Latin is still required by the current canon law:

Can. 249 The program of priestly formation is to provide that students not only are carefully taught their native language but also understand Latin well and have a suitable understanding of those foreign languages which seem necessary or useful for their formation or for the exercise of pastoral ministry.

Geremia
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  • Thank you for this answer. Would you know if this is being followed today? – DDS Aug 06 '23 at 05:10
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    @I.Chekhov Seminaries are very lacking in this domain now. Only some traditional seminaries and schools of formation do this. Few teach theology in Latin. I know of a few. – Ken Graham Aug 06 '23 at 13:03
  • @KenGraham Thank you for your comment. I suspected as such, as McInerny in the aforementioned book expressed some doubt (back in 1994) that many priests could even celebrate a Mass in Latin. This should not be the case if they were instructed in Latin. Thanks again. – DDS Aug 06 '23 at 14:50
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    @KenGraham "Few teach theology in Latin. I know of a few." Who are they? I know the Institute of Christ the King (which does the Traditional Latin Mass only) teaches their seminarians in French, and Fraternity of St. Peter and Society of St. Pius X seminaries in the 🇺🇸 teach their classes in English (though these all do have a class for learning Latin). – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 20:57
  • Maybe they should be giving the classes in Koine Greek instead. The Catholic insistence on Latin always struck me as strange: some Jews insist on Hebrew, some Muslims on Classical Arabic, some Hindus on Sanskrit, but those were the languages that many of their sacred texts were actually written in, so there is some argument there about being as close as possible to the original text. But Latin? That's like evangelical Christians who insist that the English King James Bible is the one true version. – Obie 2.0 Aug 06 '23 at 22:26
  • @Obie2.0 In the first centuries of the Church, even Latin-speaking Romans considered Greek the sacred language. Latin was considered a more practical language because of its role in uniting the Roman Empire. It's a universal language. Roman Catholics have no excuse not knowing Latin. Ideally, priests should be familiar with the sacred languages nailed to the Holy Cross: Hebrew, Greek, Latin (Lk. 23:38, Jn. 19:20; cf. Apoc. 9:11). – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 22:42
  • @Obie2.0 See Latinist Christine Mohrmann's Liturgical Latin: Its Origins and Character: Three Lectures. – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 22:43
  • @Geremia - It was a universal language back then, granted. Nowadays, the same argument would probably imply that English should be the language of the Catholic Church. – Obie 2.0 Aug 06 '23 at 22:44
  • @Obie2.0 Mohrmann, ibid. pp. 60-61: "The advocates of the use of the vernacular in the liturgy who maintain that even in Christian Antiquity the current speech of everyday life, 'the Latin of the common man,' was employed, are far off the mark. Liturgical Latin [=Ecclesiastical Latin] is not Classical Latin, but neither is it, as is so often said, the Latin which was considered decadent by educated people." – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 22:46
  • @Obie2.0 Latin is universal in space and time. – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 22:50
  • @Geremia - An interesting idea, that. Where was Latin when God laid the foundations of the Earth? – Obie 2.0 Aug 06 '23 at 22:51
  • @Obie2.0 There's debate whether Adam spoke Hebrew; cf. Umberto Eco's The Search for the Perfect Language. – Geremia Aug 06 '23 at 23:20