Why does the Mass necessarily have to be said in Latin?

Why does the Mass necessarily have to be said in Latin? Jesus not the apostles wrote in Latin, they all spoke at the very least Greek.
This seems like an arbitrary requirement that has little to nothing to do with actual canon and just exists purely because it's what Catholics used to do, not because God said it should be done.

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It doesn't. Latin is just easier to keep track of stuff, it could be Italian, French or even Japanese for everyone and as long as it's just one language it's harder to abuse it.
    The Church has plenty of other rites beside the Roman, some that don't even use Latin, radtrads just don't know enough about the religion they're supposed to follow and make random shit up.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Just to add before the morons who never stepped inside a church show up to enlighten this thread. At my parish I've noticed that the most radical/fanatic elements usually weren't doing out of devotion, but from a need to rebel.
      I remember meeting an older gentleman many years ago who would join me for coffee after Mass and constantly went on rants like "have you seen what Bergoglio did this week?" or "you won't believe what's going on in Germany", anyway, guy was ok to talk, but eventually started making up random stuff, rambling about Vatican II all the time, when covid started he stopped going to Mass, said he refused to wear a mask or keep distance from others, even after I told him it wasn't mandatory he just fricked off.
      A few years later I met a young lad, he was the most annoying person ever, complained about everything, couldn't even talk about football in front of him because he said it was sinful. Eventually he fricked off and joined a cult.
      Anyway, my point is that most of those individuals aren't actually Catholic, here in Rio de Janeiro I go to the Apostolic Administration's Mass, like most other traditionalist groups in communion with Rome, they started as sedevacantists, eventually realized they were wrong and returned to Rome. My State is the only one where the FSSPX isn't located at the capital, but rather in the middle of nowhere, near the Apostolic Administration parishes. Those elements are of an entirely different religion and the reason why we used to burn people alive.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Different religion how? It's Catholicism without a Pope

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >couldn't even talk about football in front of him because he said it was sinful
        Bwahaha that kid would have a stroke if he visited Italy or Spain.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It was a nice way to maintain unity after the fall of Rome, and obviously western Romans did it in Latin before then. Became redundant after several centuries and so people mystified Latin and came up with more explanations to justify its use. There aren’t really any good reasons besides muh tradition.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >because muh heckin romerinos are more important than christ

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      But it is about God to them. Pic related. They hate modernism so much they're willing to do home churches.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The cross was wrotten in hebrew, koine and latin, catholic church occupy mostly romance countries and latin america so latin sounds by far more familiar

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Besides you should actually do it in the language people speak. Spanish and French are no longer Latin, even though there are quite a lot of similarities it's different enough to be a different language

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        The Bible reading and the priest's sermon/discussion is in English but the rest is in Latin and people have a missal. People can understand enough of the Latin service.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Why does the Mass necessarily have to be said in Latin?

    It doesn't. It is a useful language for unity in the church though because you could go to anywhere in the world and have the exact same mass, as opposed to the NO which makes it so that you have different masses for the faithful of different ethnic groups in the same parish.

    Also, Latin being a dead language means the words used will always have the same meaning, and the connotations of them are unlikely to ever change.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just another tradition of the elders

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Maybe you would be interested in reading Veterum Sapientia by Pope John XXII. In 1962, Pope John envisioned a revitalisation and strengthening of the use of Latin as a source of continuity with the Church Fathers of old, a continued witness of tradition, and a hallowed tongue for unity in a Church that spanned countries and continents, to all the ends of the earth. Fluency in Latin really was not infrequent in the clergy, after all VC2 had 2000+ bishops speaking to each other in Latin. Naturally, even if it was an accident of history that the Church was formed in the Roman Empire, or that Charlemagne asked Alcuin to standardise Latin in the 8th-9th Century, this language became a treasured part of the identity of the Roman Catholic Church.
    However "total" absence of the vernacular was not universal. I read a very interesting book on the Roman Rite in the Algonquin missions of Québec, Ontario, and New York. In the early 17th Century, the Hesuits obtained permission to have an Usus that had vernacular propers and ordinary responses. You can find 300 year old Mohawk translations set to Gregorian Chant!

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      *Jesuits, pardon my typo

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      IIRC the Jesuits also composed religious songs in Huron, making Canada's oldest church hymn

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Jesus did speak Latin though. You have no proof otherwise. The NT was likely originally written in Latin and then translated into Greek.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Except we know the NT was written with reference to the Septuagint, which was written in koine Greek

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        No, we don't. You cannot prove that. Latin is the holiest language on earth, its the language of the angels, its the language of the whole Bible. The israelites corrupted the scriptures original language and say it was written in Hebrew. It wasnt. The Vulgate is the only true Bible, Jerome didnt write it he merley updated the older versions of it. The Vulgate is God incarnate since the Word is God per John 1:1.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >its the language of the angels
          Source: Dude trust me
          >its the language of the whole Bible.
          Source: Dude trust me

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >oldest vulgate is from the 4th century
          >older manuscripts all written in greek
          the levels of cope latinoids will stoop to
          >Dude there were totally older latin versions, it's pure coincidence that all the older ones were written in greek!

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Not him but I've been to Latin Mass and the Bible is read in English and the sermon/talks on the reading are given in English. The rest is given in Latin. This makes beautiful music and an effective eucharist but leaves the Bible understandable.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            That's all just personal preference and doesn't justify the tradcath autism surrounding latin

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            It does when it gives people less freedom to be irreverent. Pic related is Sedevacantist criticism of the new Mass. It's more than just Latin. Thoughts on the criticism?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            is that from that autistic sede website?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            No but from other Sedes.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Because its a tradition
    also the fact that they use a dead language has many benefits as to not misunderstand words seeing that the cultural meaning can't change anymore
    thats why science uses Latin

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    There's no such thing as a "perfect translation". The original text will ALWAYS be relevant. It's impossible to perfectly translate a document. That's true for the Bible of course.
    The mass can be in whatever language you wish. But there will always be a demand for people who can speak Latin, Greek and Hebrew in order to be able to read and comprehend the original biblical and patristic documents. Having a Latin or Greek mass means that the language lives on through the mass/church.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You're decades behind the times! The RCA hasn't used Latin since 'Vatican II'!

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      There are Latin Masses in the USA. They're coming back.

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