VATICAN INSIDER AND FR. REGGIE, A PAPAL LATINIST FOR 40 YEARS
Tune in to “Vatican Insider” this weekend for my visit with a man who made some history at the Vatican! I recently spent some delightful time in Milwaukee with Discalced Carmelite Fr. Reginald Foster, the papal Latinist for 40 years and you’ll hear Part I of our conversation this coming weekend.
Fr. Reggie is a living legend! He likes to be called Fr. Reggie – or even by his name in Latin, Reginaldus! He worked for 40 years at the Vatican in the Secretariat of State office for Latin translations – from 1969 to 2009 – and for 30 plus years taught Latin at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome. A prodigious producer and translator of documents for Popes, Father Reggie was known as the Papal Latinist.
And he designed this: https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln?lang=en If you want to learn Latin, go to the papal twitter site in your language, read the last tweet posted and then go to the Latin twitter site for the tranlation!
Now semi-retired, Fr. Reggie lives in his native Milwaukee but still teaches Latin several days a week, and students come from around the world for his summer courses! He converses as easily in Latin as you and I do in our native tongue. This is an interview you won’t want to miss! As you will see, he loves to wear the clothing of the several generations of plumbers in his family – that is part of the legend!
In the United States, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (there is a list of U.S. stations at http://www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio. Outside the U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” Vatican Insider airs Saturday mornings at 9:00am (ET). On the SKY satellite feed to the UK and parts of Europe, VI airs on audio channel 0147 at 11:30 am CET on Saturdays, and 5:30am and 10pm CET on Sundays. It’s also available on demand on the EWTN app and on the website. CHECK YOUR TIME ZONE. Here’s a link to download VI to your iTunes library: http://www.ewtn.com/se/pg/DatService.svc/feed/~LE.xml For VI archives: http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=7096&pgnu=
SO YOU THINK LATIN IS A DEAD LANGUAGE? READ ON!
Tempus fugit: Time flies!
Have you ever used that expression?! Perhaps you have, not realizing it was Latin even though you knew what it meant! Maybe you’ve never used it but should, just for fun!
As you will see in the following expressions, you use Latin more than you think every day. Many thanks to http://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/language/latin-phrases-still-use-today/18753
Et cetera: This is probably the most common Latin phrase that we all use in writing. This is the actual spelling but we use the abbreviated form etc. Meaning and the others it is used to denote that a list of things could continue ad infinitum and that for the sake of brevity it’s better to just wrap things up with a simple etc.
Vice Versa: Another commonly used phrase in written as well as oral communication is vice versa which translates as the positions being reversed.
Ad infinitum: You might be able to guess what this phrase means simply through its similarity to the word we use in English. It means to infinity and can be used to describe something that goes on, endlessly.
Mea culpa: This Latin phrase that translates literally to my fault is a fancier, less outdated way of saying my bad.
Persona non grata: From the Latin meaning an unacceptable person this term designates someone who’s no longer welcome in a social or business situation.
In vitro: We are familiar with this term from medical vocabulary because of modern fertility treatments, but in Latin, in vitro actually means in glass and any biological process that occurs in the laboratory rather than in the body or a natural setting can be called in vitro.
In vivo: In vivo on the other hand, means within the living and the two most common examples of this kind of experimentation are animal testing and clinical trials.
Other common phrases from the same field are-
Post mortem: after death
Post partum: after childbirth
Rigor mortis: stiffness of death
Law, judiciary, politics and the education corps also use a lot of Latin vocabulary:
Ad hoc: for this purpose
Bona fide: in good faith
Ex tempore: without preparation
Lingua franca: common language
Prima facie: at first sight
Alias: an assumed name or pseudonym
Sub poena: under penalty of
Curriculum vitae: the course of one’s life-in business/ a lengthened resume
Versus: against
Circa: around/ approximately
Status Quo: current situation
Habeas Corpus: a court order instructing that a person under arrest be brought before a judge
Verbatim: in the exact same words
The list must definitely include the phrases very often used in mathematics, literature as well as economics like:
Ceteris paribus: all things being equal
Post scriptum: written later (abbreviated as P.S.)
Ante meridiem: before noon (A.M.)
Post meridiem: after noon (P.M.)
Per annum: by the year
Per capita: by the person
There’s also this: https://www.inklyo.com/latin-phrases-you-use-every-day/
Joan's Rome 