I suspect this move will bring out many more Latin lovers and practitioners than one might expect...
'Benedicti breviloquentis'
And now, the Pope
to tweet in Latin
by Silvia Guidi
Translated from the 1/18/13 issue of
Benedict XVI's first tweet in Latin will be posted on Sunday, January 20, but just two hours after the news was first released, there were already 700 followers.
"
Tuus adventus in paginam publicam Summi Pontificis Benedicti XVI breviloquentis optatissimus est. Ex Civitate Vaticana" (Your coming to the official Twitter page of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI is most gratifying. From Vatican City)
The new Twitter account in Latin is Benedictus pp. XVI @Pontifex_ln.
Fr. Roberto Spataro, vice president of the recently established Pontificia Accademis di Latinita, explains the term 'breviloquium'
[which means 'conciseness'. literally 'briefly speaking] briefly'] chosen to translate 'Twitter' to Latin: "Obviously, it is not a literal translation, but it expresses well the medium's characteristics. Besides, it also recalls the title of St. Bonaventure's first work,
Breviloquium, in which he describes reality as 'a symphony by God'."
Manlio Siomnetti, the Italian patristics scholar who won one of the first three Ratzinger Prizes in theology in 2011, told
L'Osservatore Romano: "I cannot be an objective and disinterested observer because I approve of everything that will promote Latin. It is a language that adapts itself very well to the brevity demanded by the new social networks, much more than English".
Fr. Spadaro points out that "Twitter demands rapid communication. If I say in English, 'The corruption of the best people is horrible', I can say the same thing in Latin using three words only:
'Corruptio optimi pessima'. It is a language that helps one to think with precision and moderation. And it has produced an exceptional patrimony in science, knowledge, and faith".
I am ashamed I have not made any progress in my Latin self-study at all, my only formal exposure having been 'Latin for medical and pharmacy students' in college. I now have Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, which is an excellent teaching aid, but I have not found the discipline to make time for him, even if it is only 30 minutes a day. But I have found that's not enough time to really learn a new declension (I'm stuck at the third declension of nouns and adjectives - there are five such declensions, that have to be learned in six cases, and in singular and plural forms; and have only tackled the first of five verb conjugations). But it has been a useful exercise to try and figure out the meaning of the Latin passages one occasionally comes across in writings about the Church, when they are not translated within the text - by consulting a Latin dictionary, as well as the declension and conjugation charts! And I thought German was a major challenge already!