Anthony Ruff, OSB:
“The dead language has died…”
He refers to an
article written by a Maryknoll priest whose photo is of him dressed in a shirt and tie. Even if the liturgy should be intelligible to the people through a hieratic vernacular, this does not mean that the clerics should not know the sacred languages associated with their rite, and even more than that, if possible -- I would argue that the more educated clerics of the Roman rite should know Greek as well, and perhaps even Syriac. The necessity of Hebrew is less obvious to me, as the Septuagint and the New Testament are in Greek, though they should nonetheless have an understanding of old Jewish culture and tradition. Latin and Greek to understand the Latin and Greek Fathers in the original languages? Yes. And so long as their is a single Western patriarchate of consequqence (though it is denied, even officially by Benedict XVI) there should be a common language for bishops to communicate with one another. Is English really the best language for that task? (Rather than being the pragmatic solution at this time, since Latin is no longer being taught to Roman-rite clerics.)
