Ecclesiastical Latin

The term Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin or Italian Latin) is the Latin that is used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church and in its Latin liturgies. It is not a distinct language but a form of Latin used for ecclesiastical purposes because it can be used also for commercial or other purposes.

The Church issued the dogmatic definitions of the first seven General Councils in Greek, and even in Rome, Greek remained at first the language of the liturgy and the language in which the first popes wrote. The Holy See is not obliged to use Latin as its official language, and in theory, it could change its practice.

However, Latin has the advantage that the meaning of its words is less likely to change radically over the centuries. That helps to ensure theological precision and orthodoxy. Accordingly, recent Popes have reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church, particularly for those in ecclesiastical studies.

Related pages
 Latin alphabet
 Medieval Latin

Other websites

Ecclesiastical Latin (article in Catholic Encyclopedia (1913))
Veterum Sapientia  by Pope John XXIII, 1962
What the Church says on the Latin Language
The Necessity of Latin (a collection of quotes from Popes, councils, and saints)
The Bible in Latin - official text of the Roman Catholic Church
Latin Bible (Vulgate text) in parallel with the English Douay-Rheims and King James Bibles
Catechism of the Catholic Church in Latin
Ordo Missae of the 1970 Roman Missal , Latin and English texts, rubrics in English only
Latin-English pre-Vatican-II Breviary 

References

 The New Missal Latin by Edmund J. Baumeister, S.M., Ph.D. Published by St. Mary's Publishing Company, P.O. Box 134, St. Mary's, KS 66536-0134, USA
A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins, (Catholic University of America Press, 1985) .  A learner's first textbook, comparable in style, layout, and coverage to Wheelock's Latin, but with text selections from the liturgy and the Vulgate. It also contains translation and composition exercises.

Category:Latin language