Vatican Gives New Life to Latin with New Journal

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The language of Caesar, Cicero and Pliny has been given a boost as the Vatican launched a revamped version of a journal in Latin.

The first issue of the new magazine, Latinitas, included a preface written by Pope Francis, whose Twitter handle is in Latin - @pontifex.

As well as sending regular messages in English, Italian, French, Arabic and several other languages, the Jesuit Pope tweets in Latin under the name "Papa Franciscus”.

"The aim is to highlight the glorious tradition behind us that has to be preserved and re-launched," Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican's culture department, said.

The new magazine was not written entirely in Latin, Cardinal Ravasi said.

“There are a few articles in Italian and in French. This is not intended to be an artificial way of recuperating Latin for the modern world." » | Nick Squires, Rome | Friday, November 08, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI: Resignation in Latin
Listen to the Pope’s resignation in Latin here

Most Dramatic Internet Shake-up in 40 Years to Allow Web Addresses in Languages from Arabic to Japanese
MAIL ONLINE: International domain names or addresses that can be written in non-English characters are expected to be approved this week.

This will spark one of the biggest changes to the internet in its four-decade history.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN - the non-profit group that oversees domain names - is holding a meeting this week in Seoul.

The ICANN board will decide if will allow entire internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters.

This could potentially open up the web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic - in which Russian is written.

The change will address the fact more than half of the 1.6billion internet users worldwide use languages based on alphabets other than Latin.

'This is the biggest change technically to the internet since it was invented 40 years ago,' Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, said.

He expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference's final day. >>> | Monday, October 26, 2009

Donations to the Roman Catholic Church Almost Double and Pilgrims Flock to the Vatican in Their Droves as the Ratzinger Effect Takes Hold

Photo of Pope Benedict XVI courtesy of TIMESONLINE

THE TIMES: With donations to the Church from around the world almost doubling and pilgrims pouring into Rome in ever-greater numbers, Vatican watchers are beginning to reassess the two-year-old pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI and noting a positive “Ratzinger effect”.

Today the Vatican will publish the Pope’s “motu proprio” decree allowing broader use by Roman Catholics of the Latin Tridentine Mass — the pontiff’s last act before leaving for his traditional summer holiday.

The move, which amends the Second Vatican Council’s decision in the 1960s that worship should be in the vernacular, is regarded as yet another sign of Benedict’s conservative attachment to tradition and doctrine. Some senior Catholics in Britain have accused him of “encouraging those who want to turn the clock back” and say that they fear the rite will revive preVatican II prayers for the conversion of “the perfidious Jews”.

The Vatican denies this, however, and points instead to the huge appeal of the Latin Mass — and Gregorian chant — not only for disaffected right-wing Catholics but also for many ordinary believers who value “the sheer beauty” of the ancient liturgy. “This is a Pope who — contrary to conventional wisdom — is in tune with the faithful,” one Vatican source said. The Ratzinger Effect: more money, more pilgrims – and lots more Latin (more)

Mark Alexander