Wednesday, January 23, 2013
THIS is in response to a letter by Amay P. Ong Vaño published last Jan. 12, 2013 entitled “Romano Catolico Ka?” In it, the author expressed his views regarding the Church’s being Catholic, Roman, and its use of Latin.
“Roman Catholic” is not a contradiction in terms—-we are Catholic (that is, Universal) precisely because we are Roman. It is a conditio sine qua non of our Catholicity, of our being Universal.
When Jesus told the apostles to gather all people from all the corners of the world, he did not tell the apostles to gather the people into bunches. Rather, he told them to gather them into one.
And we can only be one if we gather around the Bishop of Rome, Peter, whom Jesus instructed to feed the sheep and the lambs.
Only Rome can nourish the flock, and without this head, we will become no better than the thousands of Protestant sects scattered all over the world—-each with their own leaders, their own worship, and their own conflicting doctrines.
Universality and unity go hand in hand, and we can only be one if we are under one—under Peter and his successor.
Being Roman, then, is not a mere product of sentimentality or an accident of history, but a result of being steadfast to the Rock upon whom God built his Church.
Latin
Now, if the Church is to be truly universal, it has to have a universal language, inasmuch as in today’s economic globalization we must communicate in a global tongue—-not that this language will eclipse the others, but that it will unite them.
Thus, we need a language that all Catholics can call as their own—a language we can use to worship God as one whether we be in Cebu, or in Iraq, or in any other place, and one that possesses the beauty and preciseness that can withstand the test of time.
No language can do this, and has done this, better than Latin.
This language has been with the Church even during the time of Jesus—-from Pilate’s board bearing the INRI to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, even to the current Mass from which our Cebuano translation is based on, Latin has been—-and still is—-the medium of religious instruction and worship.
Unfortunately, we often do not bother to know why it was there in the first place, why it mattered, and why it still matters.
This negative attitude regarding Latin is a great mistake, and a costly one. By discouraging its use, we unwittingly denied a whole generation of Catholics of their two-thousand-year heritage.
We’ve been deprived of the beautiful prayers, the hymns, and the language which Catholics have been sharing for centuries already—a heritage whose beauty even the best translations can never quite capture, as last year’s re-translation of the Mass taught us.
Global
The problem is all the more problematic when we hear the reason—-because of “Vatican II”—-when in fact, the Second Vatican Council encouraged its use: “Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.”—Article 54, Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II.
Thus, it seems that people only keep referring to something even without reading anything of it.
Also, if we completely reject this language, we will not be only cut off from the Catholics of the past, we will also be cut off from the Catholics of the present.
You see, if Latin mattered back then when we only travelled by horse and ship, it all the more matters today when going global is at its easiest.
Now that Catholics find it easier to travel to other places—either for tourism, for education, or for work—how delightful would it be when, even if one is in a foreign country, he still goes to Church hearing the same prayers and the same Mass, spoken in the same language as he is accustomed to back at home.
Of course, this preference of Latin does not mean the rejection of our own languages—-that is not the Church’s intention.
Contrary to what the previous letter-sender makes it appear, we do not wish to pray only in Latin, but to pray also in Latin—-that we pray not only in our own native tongues, but also in the language shared by all Catholics throughout the world.
And that’s universality in action.
Doable
Can this be done? Well, if today’s new generation can quickly learn and understand songs in Korean and cartoons in Japanese—and with much gusto at that—why not with Latin?---Sem. Gio Abastillas of San Carlos Seminary College, Cebu City
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Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 23, 2013.
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