Rising Interest in Latin

In a fascinating column in The Catholic Thing titled Latin Rising, David Bonagura, Jr. explores a phenomenon of a resurgence in interest in the Latin language - both inside and outside the Church.

Today many young Catholics, conscious of the Church's catholicity and two thousand year history, perceive Latin as the means to reconnect the universal Church with her past, a past that is nearly inaccessible without it. The Fathers of the Western Church, the Middle Ages, and the Magisterium down to this very day communicated, taught, and worshiped in Latin. The traditional Latin Mass enables Catholics to worship in the same manner and in the same language as their ancestors had for many centuries. But Latin also provides linguistic unity in the present for a Church that spans all continents and includes all peoples. No one understands this better than the young, who, having witnessed firsthand the Church's universality at the World Youth Day celebrations, long for a shared articulation of the one faith that they all profess.

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