Ancient language goes modern
It’s rather ironic I learned about The Vatican’s web site from a blog named The Inquisitr 
I’m not surprised The Vatican has a web site; it’s just I had never thought about it before and had never visited.
As The Inquisitr reveals, a Latin section was only recently added.
I’ve never studied Latin and I was born just after the Second Vatican Council, so I never experienced a Latin Mass.
I can appreciate the value of Latin. From Roman times to the Industrial Revolution it was the universal language.
It was never really replaced in that role, although the European aristocracy spoke French for several centuries and English today is ubiquitous.
So it’s good to see Latin being preserved as a means of communication in the Church. I can’t understand a word of it, but here is the link.
While browsing the English section of The Vatican’s site I came across the Pope’s message to Burma.
Deeply saddened by news of the tragic aftermath of the recent cyclone, the Holy Father expresses his heartfelt sympathy. With prayers for the victims and their families, he invokes God’s peace upon the dead and divine strength and comfort upon the homeless and all who are suffering. Confident that the international community will respond with generous and effective relief to the needs of your countrymen, His Holiness asks you to convey his solidarity and concern to the civil authorities and to all the beloved people of Myanmar.
The tragic events in Burma have been well publicised, but given the brutality and isolation of the regime I’m afraid it will be soon forgotten.
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It was interesting to come across this because I was wanting to know how many Latin speakers there are in the world today.
According to this report the Vatican’s chief Latin linguist (an American) believes there are only 20 people in the world who speak the language as well as he does.
Other estimates put the number of fluent speakers at around 300 and up to 3000 who could carry on a decent conversation.
Many more, especially in the Catholic Church and universities, can read Latin fairly well.