Thursday, March 15, 2007

Latin learners!

Yes that's what Pope Benedict has said that Seminarians must be.
I better get refreshed.
Amo, amas amat...........er, umm?!?

6 comments:

Andrew said...

That ain't gonna happen in the seminary here in Malaysia unfortunately. The fact is that only the emeritus Archbishop in residence can speak the language while the Rector and the other professors can't.

Practically, priests in Malaysia have to speak 4 languages in order to fully practice their ministry, English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay, because of the diversity of the people in this country.

Most of the seminarians, who are not native English speakers, can't even speak English properly. And they have to learn their own vernacular language so that they can communicate with their parishioners who are mainly Chinese and Indian. Then there's the English speakers and those who speak the national language of Malay. What a mess.

I would love Latin to be restored but the program as it stands can't cater for it. And since the exhortation is merely suggestive, unlike Veterum Sapientia (which was ignored), it's likely that they'll ignore this one too.

Wounded One said...

Sum,es,est, sumus, estis, sunt

eram, eras, erat, eramus, eratis, erant

ero, eris, erit, erimus, eritis, erunt

Anonymous said...

lol
Let us know how you get on. I actually would like to learn Latin now, but have not found the right resources yet.

Anonymous said...

Mark -

John F. Collins' Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin is a good place to start. There's even a key available now, so you work by yourself, if you fancy it!

If I ever end up in seminary, I hope Latin will be taught. I don't really see how you can get very far in Catholic theology without it...

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Christopher. Very helpful. :)

Cathy said...

My parish offers Latin classes (and Greek!) and the "Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin" is the textbook which they use.
It's fantastic.