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Polyglot popes

  Tags: Polyglot
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
15 messages over 2 pages: 1
montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4587 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 9 of 15
30 June 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged 
Gorgoll2 wrote:
@montmorency: As a Traditionalist Catholic, I think Latin is better
than 20 years ago.
Recently, the First allowed Catholic Mass in the York Cathedral was a Tridentine - Old
Rite - Mass. The Latin Mass is quite rich in Hebraisms and Hellenisms, like "Sanctus,
Sanctus,
Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabbaoth", "Hosana in Excelsis" or "Kyrie eleison". Therefore, it
´s
often incomprehensible.


That's a good point. When people used to refer to the "Latin Mass", they forgot (or did
not realise) that it contained Hebrew and Greek influences.

I was an altar server in the 1950s and 1960s, and remember being taught that the
opening prayers:
"Introibo ad altare Dei.
[I will go to the altar of God]
Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.
[To God, the joy of my youth...."]
http://www.traditio.com/office/masstext.htm

were at least to some extent reminiscent of the introduction to services in the
synagogue at the time the mass was being forumulated.



On a lighter note, there was a fun letter in today's Guardian:


Quote:

I see the Vatican bank has an ATM offering withdrawals in Latin (Report, 29 June).
Surely this is a deductio ad absurdum.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jun/29/euro-2012- merkel-giles-fraser


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Journeyer
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
tristan85.blogspot.c
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Studies: Sign Language

 
 Message 10 of 15
01 July 2012 at 10:52pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Well, they do have ample time and access to language learning materials. On the other hand they do not
have access to the very best way of learning a language: Having a native girlfriend or boyfriend. I am not
so sure the Italian popes have been polyglots, though.


I thought I had already responded to this, but now I cannot find my post.

Anyways: I'm not sure the time thing is accurate. Back when Pope John Paul II passed away, I remember reading that a leading factor in death in popes, along with advanced age, was exhaustion.
1 person has voted this message useful



Gorgoll2
Senior Member
Brazil
veritassword.blogspo
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 Message 11 of 15
02 July 2012 at 2:30am | IP Logged 
I guess Popes´ age is a rather random factor. The XX century had eight popes, but the XIX
century had only five.
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melkior79
Newbie
Japan
Joined 4390 days ago

16 posts - 31 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Latin, French

 
 Message 12 of 15
02 July 2012 at 9:30am | IP Logged 
JP II was fluent in 7 languages and I heard he could speak up to 14 to various degrees.

Benedict's Latin is reputed to be excellent. When he was the head of the Congregaion for the Doctrine of the Faith (The modern Inquisition) he often conducted proceedings in Latin.

Reginald Foster also attested to the fact that the Popes spoken Latin is brilliant.


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Ogrim
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Senior Member
France
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Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian
Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian

 
 Message 13 of 15
06 July 2012 at 11:13am | IP Logged 
I do not know about Popes, but I do know about some Catholic priests who are amazing polyglots. They tend to belong to one of the Holy Orders, which I guess makes sense, because e.g. Jesuits and Dominicans put a lot of emphasis on learning and knowledge.

I'd like to mention Kjell Arild Pollestad, a Norwegian Dominican priest and writer. I have never seen a complete list of his languages, but from his writings it is known that he is more or less fluent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Icelandic and modern Greek. He has obviously studied Classical Greek, Latin and Hebrew, but also Coptic, Assyrian and Georgian. In one of his books he also mentions studying Arabic (which he found difficult) and Armenian. Finally, he knows Old Norse and has recently made a new translation of the Kings' Saga by Snorri Sturluson.
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Rykketid
Diglot
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4592 days ago

88 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English
Studies: French

 
 Message 14 of 15
16 July 2012 at 5:46pm | IP Logged 
I think that it is almost a necessity, in my opinion the reason dwells inside the name
of the Church. Catholic comes from the Greek word καθολικός (katholikos) meaning
universal. Indeed the Catcholic Church has always been the most international of the
Christian Churches.

An anecdote that I read in a magazine and that I really appreciated is that Pope John
Paul II wanted to learn some Thai because a visit to a Catholic community in Thailand
was on the schedule, and he wanted to make them understand that the Church was near all
its devouts, even the small communities scattered around the world.

Of course it wasn't an easy goal to achieve for a person in his seventies (or eighties,
I don't remember when this happened), considering that Thai has 5 tones, giving the
wrong intonation to the Lord's Prayer could have turned it into a joke. But he
successfully managed and the Thai catholics got the Lord's Prayer in their language.

Edited by Rykketid on 16 July 2012 at 6:55pm

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yenome
Hexaglot
Newbie
United States
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37 posts - 45 votes
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian
Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin

 
 Message 15 of 15
24 July 2012 at 9:56pm | IP Logged 
I would've overestimate the amount of free time popes have. In many ways, they have to function as heads of state, receiving many visitors, making policy decisions, etc.

Benedict also has excellent knowledge of classical Greek, for what it's worth.


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