“Why Latin Is the Right Language for Roman Catholic Worship” — Full Text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Cleveland Lecture

The error that led to the abolition of Latin was neoscholastic and Cartesian in nature—namely, the belief that the content of the Catholic Faith is not embodied or incarnate but somehow abstracted from matter. Thus, many Catholics think that Tradition means only some conceptual content that is passed down, irrespective of the way in which it is passed down. But this is not true. Latin is itself one of the things passed down, together with the content of all that is written or chanted in Latin. Moreover, as we have seen, the Church herself recognized this point on a number of occasions in singling out Latin for special praise, recognizing in it an efficacious sign of the unity, catholicity, antiquity, and permanence of the Latin Church.
Latin thus possesses a quasi-sacramental function: just as Gregorian chant is “the musical icon of Roman Catholicism” (Joseph Swain), so is Latin its “linguistic icon.”

Read the full transcription of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Cleveland Lecture of June 4, 2022 here. Italian translation here.