Language Matters

The Summer Olympics are now history as the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, came to a close this weekend. These Games made history for being the first to be held in South America and the first to be held in a Portuguese-speaking country. Portuguese is the dominant language at the games, followed by the two official languages of the Olympics, English and French. But recent Games have shown the use of French on the decline, and that has troubled Francophones who want to preserve their language.

When Barron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, founded the modern Olympic Games at the turn of the 20th century, he chose French as the Games’ first official language. But as the century progressed, English became the dominant common global language and the use of French at the Olympics waned. That’s why the Games now employ an official whose primary role is to monitor the use of French throughout the Olympics. 

We are passionate about language. It is, after all, our primary means of communication, and it helps to form our identity.

The Church too is passionate about language. Latin has been the official language of the Western Church since the year 384 and for centuries it was the primary liturgical language of the Roman Rite. Debates over the use of Latin in the liturgy have been heated, so much so that the Council of Trent (1545-1563) called anathema anyone who said that Mass should be celebrated only in the vernacular. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), while advocating the use of Latin, opened the door to allow the People of God to celebrate and to express their faith in their own language:

Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites. But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its use may be extended.

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #36.

The vernacular quickly caught on, replacing Latin as the primary language of the liturgy. Even though today we pray in our own languages, the issues surrounding the language of the liturgy are not likely to go away anytime soon. As communities in the United States become more diverse, there are likely to be more bilingual, trilingual and multilingual celebrations. All of this is to say that we are challenged to remember what Pope Francis calls the primary language of the gospel--the language of mercy.