The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

378 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.were assembled Bishops from all parts of the world,speaking all the civilized languages of Christendom.Had those Bishops no uniform language to expresstheir thoughts, public debates and familiar conversation among them would have been impracticable.The Council Chamber would have been a perfectBabel of tongues. But, thanks to the Latin language which they all spoke (except a few Orientals),their speeches were as plainly understood as if eachhad spoken in his native dialect.3. Moreover, the Bishops and Clergy of the Catholic Church are in frequent correspondence with theHoly See. This requires that they should communicate in one uniform language; otherwise, thePope would be compelled to employ secretariesspeaking every language in Christendom.But if the priest says Mass in an unknown tongue,are not the people thereby kept in ignorance of whathe says, and is not their time wasted in Church?We are forced to smile at such charges, which areflippantly repeated from year to year. These assertions arise from a total ignorance of the Mass.Many Protestants imagine that the essence of publicworship consists in a sermon. Hence, to their minds,the primary duty of a iscongregation to listen to adiscourse from the pulpit. Prayer, on the contrary,according to Catholic teaching, is the most essentialduty of a congregation, though they are also regularly instructed by sermons. Now, what is the Mass?It is not a sermon, but it is a sacrifice of prayer