The Vatican’s Latinist

[Disir]

In 1970, the Procurator General of the Discalced Carmelite Order, Finian Monahan, was summoned to the Vatican for a meeting. The subject of the meeting was a promising young American priest by the name of Reginald Foster. The head Latinist of the Vatican’s State Department had tapped Foster to write papal correspondence, which was at the time composed entirely in Latin. Foster wanted the job but was bound by a vow of obedience, and the decision would be made by his superiors. Monahan intended to resist. Foster, thirty years of age, had proven himself to be both supremely intellectually gifted and utterly reliable—a precious thing at a time when the Catholic Church’s religious orders were hemorrhaging priests. Monahan thought Latin was a dead end. He didn’t want to lose one of his best to a Vatican department that would only get less and less important every year. He said Foster would go to the Vatican “over my dead body.”

Foster remembers the meeting vividly. “So we arrive there, and we’re ushered into this office, and who do we find there but Ioannes Benelli,” Foster says, using Benelli’s Latin name, as was customary at the Vatican at that time. He continues:

Benelli was Paul VI’s hatchet man—whenever he wanted something to get done, he called on Benelli. He was very energetic—got things done, and no nonsense. Everyone was terrified of him. I was too, and now here we were in the room with him, and he turns to Monahan and says, “This is Foster?” The General said yes. Then Benelli said, “Thank you very much, we won’t be needing you anymore.” And he took me by the hand and brought me down to the State Department and that was the end of that. Monahan didn’t say a word. I was now working for the Pope, and it was like I was more or less out of the Carmelite Order. A lot of the time the Order didn’t even really know what I was doing.

Foster would spend the next forty years at the Vatican, part of a small team of scribes who composed the pope’s correspondence, translated his encyclicals, and wrote copy for internal church documents.
The Vatican’s Latinist

This is a lengthy but excellent article on Foster.

I wonder what it was like to take one of his classes.

 

[irosie91]

???? some guy who knew latin well----SO???

 

[Disir]

???? some guy who knew latin well----SO???

Fascinating individual that taught a generation of church leaders and is now in a Milwaukee nursing home.
Don't knock il benzinaio,

 

[HaShev]

All I got out of this is:
1)they kidnaped a Latin translater
2)held him against his will & enslaved him to work for the Vatican.
3)never mess with a guy with a mobster's name who's reputation is getting his way and everyone fears, or 1&2 will happen.
4)it reminded me of the Book I sent the Pope in Italian that I translated using Babelfish (oh the irony).
They must of busted a gut laughing at the funny misstranlations that occur when using babelfish. However, I left it knowing there would be translation issues as I was hoping they'd get the point, that this is the comical way we see them trying to translate Hebrew. But worse is the ancient text also used an ancient protective use of slang words and symbolism which gets distorted when translated into modern day english.
The funny translations and misscues is what I wanted them to grasp reflecting upon their own translations misshaps.
If they were smart and guided they would seek out the English version of my Book just as they should be reading the Tanakh in Hebrew or at least translated to English by Rabbis like the Chabad version.

 

[Sunni Man]

In 1970, the Procurator General of the Discalced Carmelite Order, Finian Monahan, was summoned to the Vatican for a meeting. The subject of the meeting was a promising young American priest by the name of Reginald Foster. The head Latinist of the Vatican’s State Department had tapped Foster to write papal correspondence, which was at the time composed entirely in Latin. Foster wanted the job but was bound by a vow of obedience, and the decision would be made by his superiors. Monahan intended to resist. Foster, thirty years of age, had proven himself to be both supremely intellectually gifted and utterly reliable—a precious thing at a time when the Catholic Church’s religious orders were hemorrhaging priests. Monahan thought Latin was a dead end. He didn’t want to lose one of his best to a Vatican department that would only get less and less important every year. He said Foster would go to the Vatican “over my dead body.”

Foster remembers the meeting vividly. “So we arrive there, and we’re ushered into this office, and who do we find there but Ioannes Benelli,” Foster says, using Benelli’s Latin name, as was customary at the Vatican at that time. He continues:

Benelli was Paul VI’s hatchet man—whenever he wanted something to get done, he called on Benelli. He was very energetic—got things done, and no nonsense. Everyone was terrified of him. I was too, and now here we were in the room with him, and he turns to Monahan and says, “This is Foster?” The General said yes. Then Benelli said, “Thank you very much, we won’t be needing you anymore.” And he took me by the hand and brought me down to the State Department and that was the end of that. Monahan didn’t say a word. I was now working for the Pope, and it was like I was more or less out of the Carmelite Order. A lot of the time the Order didn’t even really know what I was doing.

Foster would spend the next forty years at the Vatican, part of a small team of scribes who composed the pope’s correspondence, translated his encyclicals, and wrote copy for internal church documents.
The Vatican’s Latinist

This is a lengthy but excellent article on Foster.

I wonder what it was like to take one of his classes.

Thank you for the great article about an extraordinary man, and his lifetime passion for the Latin language. ..... ...