Back to the Middle Ages

Half-a-century ago, the Catholic Church went through aggiornamento, a process of updating itself, as a result of the Second Vatican Council. One of its most visible reforms was allowing the mass to be celebrated in each community's language, instead of the Latin version. This was a significant step in bringing people closer to the Church and its major liturgical event.

Now, inexplicably, the Vatican is calling for a comeback to Latin, claiming that some of the trouble that the Church finds itself in is due to the fact that its hierarchy and rank and file have gotten away from the wisdom that the texts in Latin contain. In other words, in order to go forward, the Church has to go back to the time when ordinary people didn't have a clue as to what was being said. I suppose that, sensing that it is losing ground in the modern world, the Vatican has opted for an extremely conservative position on everything, including language. But, it seems to me that, except for some clearly-disturbed people like Mel Gibson, not very many are going to accept this trip down memory lane.

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