To the editor:
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf’s column, “Latin is language for Church teaching, worship” (Catholic Herald, March 3), could be taken at its word. We have Latin. He states that Judaism has Hebrew.
When the Torah is read in Hebrew, the congregation understands it. When a child becomes Bar or Bat Mitzvah, he or she reads from the Torah and presents a short essay.
At Confirmation, the Catholic child has no such understanding of Latin. That’s because the Council of Toulouse in 1229 declared, “We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the old and new testament”; they were in Latin.
Father Zuhlsdorf says of Latin, “It was improperly abandoned, and it cannot be denied that we have suffered from its absence.” True, and if the Latin Mass is restored generally, the Church has an obligation to teach Latin to every child and adult. It would be a great learning opportunity and a great gift from the Church to its faithful.
Tom Roberts, Madison