>The Catholic Church is returning to the celebration of the Mass in Latin. The New York Times has released an audio slide show of the celebration of Latin Mass and how it is beginning to attract priests and parishioners in the U.S.
Click here to view the audio slide show.
When I was living in Brazil, I grew up in a Catholic home. My family and I attended a church which celebrated the Mass in Latin. My family and I did not understand Latin, so the celebration of the Mass was mostly unintelligible to us. As the slide show demonstrates, most people are attracted to the “mystery” which they perceive is present in the Latin Mass.
The return of the Latin Mass reminds me of the words of Paul: “But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).
Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary
Tags: Catholic Church, Latin Mass, Mass
Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament 
>The Latin Mass serves a lot of great purposes. Ever since my parish here at school has decided to do the Mass in the Extraordinary Form, I’ve purchased a Latin missal, I’ve been working on my Latin, etc. The really great thing about it is the unifying factor. In my diocese back home, we have tons of masses in different languages. We have a Polish Mass, a Spanish Mass, a Korean Mass, a Chinese Mass, etc. The Latin Mass allows for everyone to come together and worship as one body. Sure, you might not be able to say two words to someone after the Mass, but atleast you’re united through your time of worship.
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>Josh,Thank you for your comment and thank you for visiting my blog.The Latin Mass may be beautiful and meaningful in Latin, but it does not communicate the Gospel in the language of the people. I favor Polish Mass, Spanish Mass, Korean Mass and others because these services use the language of the people and minister to their spiritual needs.Again, let me use the words of the Apostle Paul: “If you give a blessing [in Latin] a language which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it. Celebrating the Mass in Latin may emphasize the old sacred traditions of the church, “but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength” (1 Corinthians 14:4).Claude Mariottini
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>In 1 Corinthians 14, St. Paul seems to be speaking about “charismatic” tongues for which there are no grammar books that could be studied. However, if the passage is used to call for the use of the vernacular, one might argue that there are always bound worshippers who will not understand one or other language used. Fortunately, whether in the vernacular or Latin, an interpreter can translate the meaning of the human language for those who cannot understand. And this interpreter may even come in the form of a book. Thanks to widespread literacy and book printing hand held missals which contain both he human tongue of Latin and the human tongue of the vernacular can be easily found. This means that worshippers from all over the world can say the same prayers in a common language and know what they mean (as far as humanly possible). As you well know, before national languages were standardized and taught in schools to all children, almost every town had its own dialect. Universal education and the study of a national literature is something fairly recent. Latin, therefore, served a unifying purpose for the worship, just as Jews gathering from all over the world could worship in the dead human language of Hebrew. (Homilies and announcements were in one or more vernacular as needed to interpret the Scriptural truths in the prayer texts of the Holy Mass.) I hope I don’t come across as contentious. I am grateful to see your posting on the “Latin” Mass, though. But, to conclude, I want to add that I think the focus on Latin misses the point. It is the dignity, organic development, Christian symbolism, and meditative quality of the older rite itself, not so much the Latin which has a powerful effect on the faithful.
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