Latin if you please

byVivianeHewitl in Rome THE Vatican would be in favour of introducing Latin in to primary schools, the Holy See's major Latin linguist, Abbot Carlo Egger, has revealed. Translator into Latin of papal encyclicals and editor of the authoritative review Latinitas, he said the ancient language could be taught in schools to six and seven year olds.
The Vatican was responding to a campaign by 80 MPs in the Italian Parliament for a Latin rebirth in schools.
Pope John Paul II is known to back the initiative because, Vatican sources said, the Church was starting to "suffer" from the Latin shortcomings of young priests who enter seminaries with no foreknowledge of the language.
In a recent letter to bishops the Pope wrote: "The Church has special obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome, and it must manifest them each time the opportunity presents itself". Italy's teachers' unions are already protesting at the MPs' proposal which they describe as "impossible" to implement.
Even the Vatican admits it has come up against problems with Latin when dealing with modern inventions. Because Latin is still used as a common tongue at multi-national ecclesiastical meetings, special combinations have had to be contrived when compiling documents on modern issues, such as the atomic bomb pirobulus atomicus or an escalation of tension, irrilatio bell!.