Thomson Reuters Foundation News:
Pope Francis took an apparent dig at conservatives resisting change in the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, lamenting those whose religion he said was self-referential and encased in a “suit of armour”.
On the Feast of the Epiphany, Francis seemed to direct specific criticism at those who have balked at his decision to restrict the traditionalist Latin Mass, saying the liturgy could not be trapped in a “dead language.”
“Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives?,” Francis said.
Is Latin a “dead language?”
Latin is a precise language; we entrust medicine and law to Latin, because it is important to be precise in medicine and law. How important is the liturgy?
What if the Latin Mass actually does still “warm our hearts and change our lives?”