Why Latin? Part II: The Universal Language of the Church

Having briefly considered why Latin is a holy and venerable language in its own right, we should also consider its practical benefits. Now there is a whole multitude of practical benefits for using so sacred a language, but I would like to focus on one, for it is one particularly relevant to my own life—and that is that it is a universal language. 

Just a few months ago, my little family picked up and moved across the Atlantic to live in Prague for about a year. The language here is Czech. As someone who has been trying to learn it on and off for the past ten years, I can tell you it is a particularly difficult language for Americans. 

The miscommunications abound. Every trip to the grocery store reminds me that I am a foreigner. A kind exchange with a stranger quickly goes sour when I’m uncertain how to respond. Friendly conversation with a mom at the playground fizzles out when we run out of shared vocabulary. There is no English-speaking priest and I really need confession so I struggle in my broken German. 

But then I go to Mass, and I am home. Czech priest, Spanish priest, Italian priest. It doesn’t matter. It’s the Sacrifice that matters. And the language is everyone’s.

I don’t have words to express what a comfort this has been.

There have been times where I have prayed an entire rosary, shoulder to shoulder, in the same language (Latin!) as the people next to me when just moments before I could not have talked to them about the weather, much less any important spiritual topic. 

Moreover, in my own home Latin is the unifying language. When the kids pray the rosary with mom, it’s in English. When they pray the rosary with Táta (dad), it’s in Czech. When we pray it together, it’s in Latin. Family rosary is Latin rosary. 

I realize that many people might not come from bilingual homes, and many more might not have the travel experiences that I have. 

But more important than the mere convenience of a universal language is the spiritual bond it fosters. More than Americans, or Czechs, or Brazilians, or Italians, we are Catholics. Let our language, at least at times, remind us of that. 

And still more important than that spiritual bond is that it directs us to the next world. More than Detroit, or Prague, or Amazon, or even Rome, we are destined for the eternal. Let our language, at least at times, remind us of that.