Why the Catholic Church Preserved Latin Until the 1960s
Among practicing Catholics, there is no ecumenical council1 more controversial than the Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 to 1965. By far one of the most prominent of the changes was the introduction of the Novus Ordo2 form of the Mass, which allowed for the use of vernacular language. Historically, all church services through the Roman rite since the fourth century were done primarily in Latin.3 Initially, the choice to make Latin the official language of the church was logical, with it being the lay language of the western half of the Roman Empire. However, as time went on, the decision to keep the mass in Latin even as it transitioned to a dead language seems confusing. What reason would the Catholic church have to have one of the cornerstones of its faith take place in a language Catholics did not understand, and why wait until the 1960s to change this?
Despite Latin being a longstanding tradition, the use of other languages in the Mass was not unprecedented, with other rites4 within the Church not using Latin. This shows that at no point was Latin an absolute necessity for the celebration of the Mass. There could have been some other goal that the church was trying to achieve through the use of Latin. One possibility for this is the preservation of the liturgy. Latin, not being commonly spoken, made the language more consistent over time than vernacular languages. This allowed the meaning of the Latin translation of religious texts to stay consistent throughout the history of the church. There are also complications that come with translation between languages that could change the meaning. The preservation of the meaning of these texts is critical to the church to prevent costs like heresy.
Additionally, in a more economic sense, having services exclusively in Latin reduced costs. Vernacular translations from Latin, much like most things in life, are not free. Historically, the process of translation was much more expensive than it is today. Furthermore, there were also more languages and regional dialects that would have driven up the cost on an already expensive process. The choice not to take on the costly endeavor to have official translations of sacramental texts like the Sacramentarium Gregorianum or, later, the Roman Missal allowed the church to allocate its resources elsewhere. It is very possible that the church acted on the vernacular when it did as a result of translations becoming cheaper over time.
The heavier burden of the Latin Mandate did not fall on church members but rather on the clergy, who had to actually learn the language to perform the Mass. Historically, this barrier to entry affected how accessible it was to become a priest, with those who could afford the education to learn the language having an easier path. There are several possible economic reasons to set up this obstacle. One is that using Latin as the official language minimized the cost of communication within the international leadership of the church. With an organization so large, knowing the number of languages needed for effective reporting would be very costly, especially the further you move towards the beginning of the church.
Another argument involves thinking of a church’s purpose as collecting resources from its members. It is possible that the intention behind introducing the vernacular was the hope for increased membership and more donations to the church. However, the share of resources can be analyzed from the perspective of the amount of church leadership. When you have fewer clergy because there is a requirement to learn Latin, it means the pool of resources is split among fewer church leaders. In an institution that once held such intense economic and political power, the viable incentive to increase each leader’s share of these resources becomes clear. The decline of this influence can be best illustrated through the fall of the papal states. From the mid-8th century until the 1870s, much of central Italy was a state ruled under the authority of the Pope. Papal territorial authority in this region would gradually decline throughout the 19th century, with it coming to an end when Italian troops began to be stationed in Rome. There was once a point where an attack on the Pope’s authority by a country that was dominantly Catholic would have been unthinkable.
With the decline of political power, the Catholic Church’s incentives shifted from the extraction of resources to survival5. In his book “Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State” Laurence argues that in the first phase of institutional defeat, where territorial sovereignty is lost, religious authorities will increase efforts for coherence throughout the organization. This is important because, prior to Vatican II, some churches began to incorporate the vernacular without the permission of Rome. There was the threat that these parishes, if left to their own devices, could schism. This is ultimately what led to the introduction of the vernacular through the Novus Ordo form of the Mass. If spoken languages were going to be allowed in the celebration, Rome had to give a more rigid structure for how it must be done to ensure unity and internal consistency. This also helps explain some of the restrictions that the church would later put on the Traditional Latin Mass. It is possible that when the cost of membership in celebrating mass in Latin was higher than the benefit of restricting clergy, the Church moved to increase membership at the expense of reducing this barrier to entry into the clergy.
It is important to note that while these are all possible explanations for Latin history in the church, that does not mean that these are the only set of explanations. Latin remained the only language of the Roman masses for such a long period because of how it allowed the church to save and allocate resources. After the costs of translation significantly decreased in tandem with a reduction of political power, it makes sense that the vernacular began to get introduced when it did. From a Catholic perspective, any institution, much like the humans who maintain it, is going to continue to respond to incentives and transaction costs.
Michael del Hierro | Research Assistant | mdelhierro@miners.utep.edu
The views represented here are those of the author and do not represent the position of The University of Texas at El Paso or the Center for Free Enterprise.
In the Catholic context, an economic council is a formal, solemn gathering of bishops from around the world, convoked and presided over by the Pope to define and clarify matters of Christian faith and discipline
The Novus Ordo contrary to popular depiction, does not completely eliminate Latin from the Liturgy, but rather introduces vernacular language in an attempt to foster increased engagement.
What would be known as the traditional Latin mass today is the Tridentine Mass which was established during the Council of Trent as a response to the Protestant reformation.
A rite is the specific liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage of a distinct people or culture that expresses their unique way of living the faith. There are 24 rites within the Catholic church with the Roman rite by far being the largest.
While this Insight asserts the intentions behind Vatican II were for the benefit of the church, it makes no claim on whether it was effective in those goals.