Latin Leaves Priests at a Loss

In nomine Patris, et, er, ... thingummy.

Pope Benedict may want more of his flock to have the chance to hear mass in Latin. But there is a snag. Not many of his priests know enough of the language to hold a service in it. Even in Italy.

Yesterday the newspaper La Stampa reported on priests' reactions to the Pope's decision this month to extend the use of the old Latin-only rite. Their views ranged from embarrassment to downright anger.

"I wouldn't know how to say mass from memory in Latin," said a 60-year-old priest from Le Marche region. "No priest should be obliged to go back to school to brush up his Latin. If some dioceses want to hold courses, well, fine."

Father Maurizio Fileni, 57, from near Ancona, went further. "I am absolutely incapable of saying mass in Latin," he told the paper. "And I would actually be ashamed to do so".

During Pope John Paul II's 26-year papacy, the top hierarchy of the Catholic church became far more conservative than before. But many of its rank-and-file priests remain firmly wedded to the ideals of the reforming Second Vatican Council.

Pope Benedict's decree allows Roman Catholics to obtain a dispensation from their priest for mass to be said in the Latin-only form, which was sidelined in 1970. Followers of the late archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who broke with the church over its liturgical reform, have made a 90-minute video showing priests how to celebrate mass in the old way.

But Father Fileni, for one, is unlikely to be acquiring it. "I am certainly not going back to being a student," he said. "The faithful can't any longer understand us in Italian, let alone Latin."