Ecclesiastical Latin | |
---|---|
Church Latin, Liturgical Latin | |
Native to | Never spoken as a native language; other uses vary widely by period and location |
Extinct | Still used for many purposes, mostly as a liturgical language of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Churches, Lutheran Churches, and Methodist Churches. Also used in the Western Orthodox Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church.[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Latin | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Holy See |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | None |
The spread of Christianity to AD 600 — the dark pockets represent initial enclaves | |
The term Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin or Italian Latin) is the Latin that is used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church and in its Latin liturgies. It is not a distinct language but a form of Latin used for ecclesiastical purposes because it can be used also for commercial or other purposes.
The Church issued the dogmatic definitions of the first seven General Councils in Greek, and even in Rome, Greek remained at first the language of the liturgy and the language in which the first popes wrote. The Holy See is not obliged to use Latin as its official language, and in theory, it could change its practice.
However, Latin has the advantage that the meaning of its words is less likely to change radically over the centuries. That helps to ensure theological precision and orthodoxy. Accordingly, recent Popes have reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church, particularly for those in ecclesiastical studies.