“Latin is a language as dead as can be” said the schoolboy tag, scrawled for generations across Latin textbooks.

Father Reginald Foster OCD, the most senior secretary (in age) in the Vatican's Latin department, begs to differ. “Latin is not dead,” he says, then adding “I hate to say it but it is dying. For the simple reason that they are not teaching it, not using it and not learning it.”

Latin was once the language used in every Catholic Mass worldwide, but it was largely replaced with Masses celebrated in local languages, in accordance with the renewal of the liturgy authorised by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

In April 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI. Last July he gave permission for any Catholic priest to celebrate the Mass according to the Roman Missal promulgated in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. This form of the Mass is always celebrated in Latin.

Until then use of the “Tridentine” Mass, now to be known as the Extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, had been restricted and priests wishing to say it needed prior permission from their local bishops.

So in 2007, Latin is once again a hot topic. But Foster, a native of Milwaukee, Winsconsin, says Pope Benedict's July 2007 decree has “nothing whatsoever to with Latin. It has to do with the ritual before Vatican II”.

However, Latin appears to be an integral part of today's liturgical debate. It should be noted that the Missal revised according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970 was entirely in Latin.

The supporters of the former Latin Mass, however, would argue that it contained a sense of reverence and sacredness lacking in the new. The importance of Latin to the Church goes beyond liturgical celebrations, says Foster.

“Some people were convinced that the changes in the liturgy rendered or made Latin useless. But what they failed to see is that Latin remained essential for education. The whole history of the Church, the whole continuity of the Catholic Church is in Latin, from the 3rd century AD onwards,” he explains.

“So there are two different questions here. The one question is about the place of Latin in the history, the teaching, the development, the life of the Church. The other is what some people think is essential, namely the liturgy, which is and always will exist in Latin.”

A Discalced Carmelite, Foster joined the Vatican's Latin department (a section of the Secretariat of State) in 1969, while a student at a specialist Latin institute in Rome. Pope Paul VI's Latinist was ill, and one of Foster's teachers suggested him as a replacement. “My work, dedication and devotion have to do with a treasure, a value, a life in the Church which has gone on in Latin until our present day.”

“I don't care what happens in the liturgy but I am deeply concerned at what is happening in education today. I do not want people out there to be forced to pray or to hear Mass in a language they do not understand,” says Foster.

Of all the changes wrought by the Vatican Council, the liturgical change was arguably the most controversial. Vatican II's document on the liturgy asked bishops to translate the Mass into their local languages with the proviso that Rome would approve the final version. The present Pope is believed to be among those who suggest that these initial translations from Latin were hastily done and consequently inadequate in so far as they fail to convey the sacred character of the Mass.

In the English-speaking world, translation controversies have been particularly rife. In 1963, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, (ICEL) was set up by 11 English-speaking Bishops' Conferences (Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa and the United States, joined later by the Philippines), with the explicit encouragement of Pope Paul VI, who wanted one English translation of the Mass.

With thousands of liturgical texts to translate, ICEL appeared to show a predilection for chopping the rhetorical flow of the original Latin into shorter chunks of concise English. The 1973 ICEL Roman Missal was criticised for minimising the transcendence of God, and exalting the religious striving of man.

In 1983, ICEL began to revise the translation of the Roman Missal: arguments over the tone, register, phrasing of translation and the use of inclusive language have delayed its final version. Then this November ICEL sent a draft version of the Missal to its members. It is now awaiting their comments. They hope that the final draft, incorporating any modifications that might be requested, will be ready for approval by the Bishops' Conferences towards the end of 2008.

Whatever the outcome, Latin is certainly no longer the language used within the Church for normal communication, Foster confirms. “The amount of work is going down. Pope Paul VI would give talks to the Eastern bishops and various international groups in Latin. All that disappeared because John Paul II knew all those languages. Benedict XVI knows Latin.

“The first International World Synods of Bishops were all conducted in Latin. Then simultaneous translation was introduced. There was a Latin language group. At the last synod in 2005 only one or two bishops took part in the Latin language group. It will be interesting to see if there is any demand at all for a Latin group at the synod scheduled for October 2008.”