Cardinal Arinze on Restoring Latin to the Latin Rite Mass

I came accross this article on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. It was entitled Top Vatican cardinal addresses St. Louis liturgy conference. It is a report of the Saturday Keynote address Cardinal Francis Arinze gave at Archdiocese of St. Louis sponsored 2006 Gateway Liturgical Conference. The address was titled Language in the Latin Rite Liturgy: Latin and Vernacular. According to the flyer for the conference Cardinal Arinze"s talk was to "concentrate on the authentic translation of the Latin and vernacular language of the Latin Rite Liturgy." He would also "address the use of the Latin Language in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy."

The Post-Dispatch article by Tim Townsend said: "Cardinal Francis Arinze, one of the most popular and powerful Vatican officials to visit St. Louis since Pope John Paul II's 1999 visit, told more than 250 people at the Chase Park Plaza Saturday morning that Latin should be used more frequently in the Roman Catholic liturgy.

The Latin language now, he said 'is in the ecclesiastical refrigerator ... Mass today should be in Latin from time to time.' "

It went on to report that "Arinze said the Roman church used Greek in its early years, but was "Latinized" in the fourth century. "The Roman rite has Latin as its official language," he said. The great religions of the world all "hold on" to their founding languages — Judaism to Hebrew and Aramaic, Islam to Arabic, Hindu to Sanskrit and Buddhism to Pali.

'Is it a small matter,' he asked, for priests or bishops from around the world to be able to speak to each other in universal language of the church? Or for 'a million students' who gather for World Youth Day every few years 'to be able to say parts of the Mass in Latin?' "

The article states that Cardinal Arinze suggested that larger Catholic parishes have a (I assume from the context) Novus Ordo Mass in Latin every Sunday & smaller parishes once a month, at least.

During the Q & A session after the address the question of when the relaxed indult for the Tridentine Rite Mass would be coming out came up. Cardinal Arinze is reported to have said: "The pope has not said anything about it. When the pope does say something, we will all hear it. "