Benedict XVI is to publish a motu proprio to establish the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pontificia Academia Latinitatis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. In the Vatican, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153e-mail address\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has been translated as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inscriptio cursus electronici\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAndrea Tornielli
\nVatican City<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Foveatur lingua latina\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Pope Benedict XVI is keen to foster people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knowledge of the language of Cicero, Augustine and Erasmus of Rotterdam not just in the Catholic Church but also in civil society and in schools. Indeed he is about to publish a motu proprio to establish the new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pontificia Academia Latinitatis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. So far, the Vatican body in charge of keeping the ancient language alive has been the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Latinitas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d foundation, which has been under the aegis of the Vatican Secretariat of State but is now destined to disappear: other than publishing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Latinitas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d magazine and organising \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Certamen Vaticanum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an international Latin poetry and prose competition, over the years, the foundation has also been in charge of translating modern words into Latin.<\/p>\n
The imminent establishment of the new pontifical academy which will add to the eleven existing academies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the most famous ones representing science and life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has been confirmed in a letter sent by the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, to Fr. Romano Nicolini, an Italian priest who is massively in favour of reintroducing Latin lessons in junior high schools. Ravasi recalled that the Academy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initiative was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153put forward by the Holy Father\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and promoted by the Vatican dicastery for culture: its members will include \u00e2\u20ac\u0153eminent academics of various nationalities, whose aim it will be to promote the use and knowledge of the Latin language in both ecclesiastical and civil contexts, including schools.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The cardinal concluded the letter by saying that the initiative was a way of responding to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the numerous requests we have been receiving from all across the world.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It has been fifty years since John XXIII promulgated the apostolic constitution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Veterum sapientia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, establishing Latin as the eternal language of the Church and stressing its importance, asking Catholic schools and universities to brink it back to life if it were ever abandoned or neglected. The Second Vatican Council maintained Latin in certain parts of the mass, but the post-conciliar liturgical reform apparently removed all trace of it from common use. And so, whereas half a century ago prelates from all over the world were able to communicate in Caesar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s language and faithful came into contact with it weekly, today Latin is not fairing too well in the Catholic Church. Instead, it is being promoted in other lay spheres, which are interested in keeping it alive.<\/p>\n
Academics are hard at work in the Holy See, coming up with neologisms to translate papal encyclicals and official documents. Translating Benedict XVI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest encyclical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Caritas in veritate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (July 2009) on social emergencies and the economic and financial crisis, into Latin, was no easy task. Some of the choices made by the Holy See\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Latin experts were criticised by influential Jesuit magazine La Civilt\u00c3\u00a0 Cattolica, which questioned the use of the terms \u00e2\u20ac\u0153delocalizatio\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anticonceptio\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sterilizatio\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but approved \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plenior libertas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for liberalisation and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fanaticus furor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for fanaticism. Some of the stranger translations included the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fontes alterius generis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for alternative energy sources and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fontes energiae qui non renovantur\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for non renewable energy sources.<\/p>\n
The Pope\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idea to establish a new Pontifical Academy is an important sign of renewed focus on the significance of Latin. Fr. Nicolini – who distributed ten thousand copies of a free introductory booklet to the Latin language in middle schools and is sending out an appeal for it to be included again in school curriculums \u00e2\u20ac\u201c stated: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Latin teaches us to show respect for beautiful things and it also teaches us to value our roots.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
One of the men in charge of updating the Latin glossary which will make it possible to communicate even today in the language spoke by Cicero, is 47 year old Fr. Roberto Spataro, Professor of Ancient Christian Literature and Secretary of the Pontificium Institutum Altioris latinitatis (known today as the Faculty of Christian and Classical Letters) founded by Paul VI in what is currently the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How would I translate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153poison pen letter writer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I knew that question was coming\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Well, I would translate it as: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Domesticus delator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Intestinus proditor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, the priest said. He also explained how Latin neologisms are born: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are two schools of thought. The first is what we may call the Anglo-Saxon school of thought, which holds that before a neologism is created, we need to sieve through all the texts that have been written in Latin \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not just classical Latin – throughout the centuries. The other school of thought, which for the sake of ease I will call Latin, holds that we can be freer in creating a circumlocution that properly conveys the idea and meaning of a modern word, whilst maintaining the flavour of classical Ciceronian Latin.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Spataro belongs to the second school of thought and invites us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to leaf through the latest edition of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lexicon recent is latinitatis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, edited by Fr. Cleto Pavanetto, a distinguished Salesian Latin expert, and published in 2003, with 15.000 Latin translations of modern terms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For example, photocopy is translated as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153exemplar luce expressum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, a banknote is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153charta numm\u00c3\u00a1ria\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, basket-ball is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153follis canistr\u00c4\u00abque ludus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, best seller is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153liber m\u00c3\u00a1xime div\u00c3\u00a9nditus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, blue-jeans are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bracae l\u00c3\u00adnteae caer\u00c3\u00baleae\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a goal is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153retis viol\u00c3\u00a1tio\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Hot pants become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153brev\u00c3\u00adssimae bracae fem\u00c3\u00adneae\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, VAT is translated as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fisc\u00c4\u0081le pr\u00c3\u00a9tii additamentum\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, a mountain bike is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153b\u00c3\u00adrota mont\u00c4\u0081na\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a parachute is an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153umbrella descens\u00c3\u00b3ria\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. But the Lexicon lacks translations of internet terms. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Indeed it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Fr. Spataro explained \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but over the last nine years, new expressions have been coined by those who write and speak Latin. So the internet is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inter rete\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and an e-mail address is referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inscriptio cursus electronici\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Benedict XVI is to publish a motu proprio to establish the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pontificia Academia Latinitatis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. In the Vatican, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153e-mail address\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has been translated as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inscriptio cursus electronici\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Andrea Tornielli Vatican City \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Foveatur lingua latina\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Pope Benedict XVI is keen to foster people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knowledge of the language of Cicero, Augustine and Erasmus of Rotterdam not just in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}