Religion: Latin for Ca+holics

Latin is no dead language to the Roman Catholic Church. In Latin of sorts its services are held, its official business transacted. For its priests, seminarians, missionaries, the Church’s nonclassical Latin is lingua franca. And, since the Popes’ encyclicals are issued in Latin, its literature is still growing. But few lay Catholics know enough Latin to understand the words of the Mass. Last week was published a book (Your Catholic Language—Sheed & Ward—$2) which aims to teach Catholics Latin.

Slim, dark, good-looking Mary Elizabeth Perkins is only 28, but two years ago she wrote At Your Ease in the Catholic Church, which tells how to address an archbishop, what presents one may give a priest, etc. But no Catholic, she believes, can be truly at ease in his church until he knows its mother tongue. In Your Catholic Language she gives a literal, interlinear translation of the Mass, side instructions that help readers pick up Latin vocabulary and syntax.

Miss Perkins’ rendering of the opening sentence of the Nicene Creed: Credo in unum Deum, Patrem I believe in one God. the Father omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, all mighty, maker of heaven and earth, -visibilium omnium et invisibilium. of visible things all and of invisible.