Thursday, November 15, 2012

Can't Make This Up: The Vatican Promotes Latin Studies. Not *that* Latin.

Somehow I missed the big Vatican announcement last Saturday about B16 instituting the Pontifical Academy for Latin Studies.

That would be "Latin" as in the language no one reads, understands or uses, not "Latin" as in appreciating the culture of those Roman Catholics from Central and South America who have not yet fled the church.

Some of the headlines for this latest bit of je ne sais quoi (that's French) from the Vatican: "Vatican promoting Latin studies to put Catholics in touch with their roots."  Had they asked, I would have recommended adding Hebrew to First Holy Communion prep.

As a (clearly too slowly) recovering masochist, I couldn't stop myself from re-reading this kicker from a Reuters release: 
"The new academy's statutes, written of course in Latin, say its goal is to promote both written and spoken Latin through publications, conferences, seminars and performances."  
Performances. Carmina Burana, perhaps?