Objectives and Methodology
As stated in our Statutes, the IICS declares our aim to be the personal and human formation of young people through classical culture, enlightened by faith in Christ (Article 3). For this reason, after many years of teaching experiences in our academic courses, and inspired by the activities that our professors carry out at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, our Institute has decided to broaden our own pedagogical offerings, dedicating an entire Latin Language course to the formation of young or future priests, and all the consecrated.
The efforts of the IICS, directed toward all Catholic Dioceses, respond to a need and to an end that our reason presents to us unavoidably, and that the Holy Father Benedict XVI confirmed through the Motu Proprio “Lingua Latina” with which, in 2012, he instituted the Pontificia Academia Latinitatis.
In our days, in which the whole Church, in various ways, sees the need to experience new ways of dialogue and evangelization of the world, it is also necessary to go back to our roots, as the community of the faithful has always done, that is, to the early energy and strength of Christian spirituality.
Since the cultural tradition of the Western Church is expressed in the Latin language, it is legitimate to sustain that the Church may energetically renew her own mission to carry forth the announcement also by reflecting and meditating on the spiritual patrimony handed on by the Latin Fathers.
Immense is the cultural patrimony handed on in the Latin language, and it concerns all of the sciences and disciplines. Indeed, it was the Church who guarded this patrimony, conserving the knowledge of the language in which it was expressed:
“Romano Imperio occidentali exstincto, Romana Ecclesia non modo lingua Latina uti perrexit, verum etiam quodammodo custos eiusdem et fautrix fuit, sive in Theologiae ac Liturgiae, sive in institutionis et scientiae transmittendae provincia”
[After the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, the Church of Rome not only continued to use Latin but, in a certain way, made herself its custodian and champion in both the theological and liturgical sectors as well as in formation and in the transmission of knowledge.]
(Benedictus XVI, Motu Proprio “Lingua Latina” datum Romae die 10/11/2012)
It would do great harm to the tradition and mission of the Church to negligently disregard the duty to safeguard and enrich this patrimony, which still today can and must be a source of vital nourishment for the Church and for humanity, as is written in the Statutes of the Pontificia Academia Latinitatis which, according to the will of Benedict XVI, looks after:
“ut linguae litterarumque Latinarum, quae ad classicos, Christianos, mediaevales, humanisticos et recentissimos pertinent auctores, cognitionem iuvet studiumque provehat, praesertim apud catholica instituta, in quibus vel Seminarii tirones vel presbyteri instituuntur atque erudiuntur. Ut provehat diversis in provinciis Latinae linguae usum, sive scribendo sive loquendo”
[To encourage the knowledge and study of Latin — language and literature, classical and patristic, Medieval and humanistic — in particular at the Catholic institutions for formation at which both seminarians and priests are trained and taught; to promote the use of Latin in various contexts, both as a written and as a spoken language.]
(Pontificiae Academiae Latinitatis Statutum, art. II.1)
In order that our relationship with the Magisterium of the Fathers might be ever more lively and fruitful, it is very advantageous to listen to their very own voice, that is to say, to their Latin voice.
For this reason, the IICS, in its lessons, adopts the inductive-contextual method, which requires the use of language rather than its abstract study. In this way, we intend to foster and render more accessible direct contact with the language being studied, to favor a greater solidity of linguistic knowledge and a more direct access to literature.
In our lessons, students will learn every grammatical rule, in addition to the most common words of the language, both by using the language and inductively grasping its notions, with the guidance of an instructor, based on the context in which they emerge. For this reason, our pedagogy calls for the active written and oral use of the language. Additionally, for the Lingua Ecclesiae course, the IICS seeks to establish an environment of study and friendly interaction in which the language of communication, but during lessons and in every moment of the day, is exclusively Latin. Given this premise, our students’ grasp on Latin grammar and vocabulary will not only be rapid and surefire, but also less tiring, since our method imitates the natural way in which we learn our mother tongue.
In short, Lingua Ecclesiae aims to guarantee students coming from any part of the world, both those who already possess a certain level of familiarity with the Latin language and those who are approaching it for the first time, the possibility to speedily acquire a complete and solid mastery of the Latin language, both active and passive, through which they will gain a new level of access to the great cultural and spiritual patrimony of the Church.
