To the editor:
In the February issue of the Catholic Courier, Dan Sadowski writes there are three "keys to decline: in the Catholic Church, one of them being "the removal of Latin as the universal language of the Church." Without denying the beauty of the Latin language or its efficacy to RomanCatholicism, let me remind everyone there’s moreto the richness of Catholicism than just Latin and the Roman Rite.The Eastern Rites are as universally Catholicas the Western Rite, and their plurality of languages — Greek, Arabic, etc. — are together as far-reaching and meaningful to the life of the Church as Latin is.
It’s true about a common, shared language being the bond that holds people together. But in the life of Catholic Christianity, that language isn’t just about how or where Latin is used. It’s about Proclaiming the Gospel regardless of how it’s said. It’s about Commemorating the Divine Mysteries regardless of the language we use to commemorate them in.
This isn’t just a Roman thing or a Latin thing. It’s a universally-applicable Catholic thing — be it done in Latin or in Greek, be it done by a Maronite or Ukrainian-Rite Catholic.
That, it seems to me, is the real universal language of Catholicism. That’s the true life of the Church, whether or not Latin is used in the Mass.
Luke Rondinaro
Watkins Glen
