It's A Dead Language
Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s widespread promotion of the vernacular discouraged use of Latin among faithful Catholics.
When considering high school Latin studies as encourage by my father in 1975, I was told, “don’t waste your time studying a dead language. You will never use it.” During my freshman year, approximately 65 sophomores studied first year Latin. During my sophomore year, only 4 students took the course.
If you have been told don’t bother with Latin because it is a “dead” language, you, as I, have been deceived. The “dead”-ness of the Latin language provides the most important aspect promoting its continued use. Active languages undergo constant change in structure and meaning. Dead languages, having fallen from regular use cease the ongoing change imparted by constant use. As a result, a message recorded in a dead languages over 1000 years ago can also be expected to impart the same intended meaning at the time of its writing, now and for centuries into the future.
In the years following my high school graduation, activities (i.e. college, marriage, working for a living, children) crowded my life, and although remaining a faithful Catholic, my faith lacked something important. Eventually, I realized I had lost the meaning and understanding of the elements of my faith.
About 40 years following the putting-off a dead language, I began searching and found Latin had a lot to offer. I began to learn and use the Latin prayers I could find, beginning with the Rosary. Far from a dead language(i.e. lifeless), Latin began enlightening my understanding and enkindling my faith in ways I never thought possible.
This site provides the Church Documents about Latin and the directives of Popes regarding its use, its training and further development. Read these documents. Then do as they command. You will not be disappointed.
To revive the Church, we must revive its language!
