Latin has been for centuries the central language of the Catholic Church, both in liturgy and administration. However, its predominance has drastically decreased in recent decades, especially after the Second Vatican Council and with recent reforms in the Roman Curia. The Holy See has promulgated a new General Regulations of the Roman Curia (which will come into effect on January 1, 2026) in which a historic change is introduced regarding the use of official languages. In this article, we offer an informative review of the presence of Latin in the Church, and an opinion analysis about what the modification of linguistic norms in the Vatican implies.
A Universal Language with Centuries of History in the Church
Latin began to be used in the Church of Rome from the early centuries, gradually replacing Greek as the ecclesiastical language in the West toward the fourth century. From then on, it became the language of liturgy, theology, and ecclesiastical government. During the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, Latin was the vehicular language of the Church and European culture: for many centuries “in royal chancelleries, in the Roman Curia, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church, … the only language was Latin” (CatholicNet). This common language allowed the Church to communicate in a unified manner across all countries, serving as an instrument of unity above local vernacular languages. In fact, since it was not the native language of any particular people, Latin functioned as a neutral language and “essence of universality” of the Church, preserving doctrinal precision by not changing over time.
From the Council of Trent (16th century) onward, the Church reaffirmed the exclusive use of Latin in the Roman liturgy, further consolidating its central role. Until the mid-20th century, the Mass and sacraments in the Latin rite were celebrated solely in Latin throughout the Catholic world, and the Holy See published its documents—encyclicals, decrees, codes of canon law, etc.—originally in Latin. Latin is still today the official language of the Holy See, and traditionally all important legal and magisterial documents were prepared in this language, serving as the reference text for translations. A notable example was the 1983 Code of Canon Law, promulgated in Latin, and papal teachings that usually carry Latin titles. Even in recent times, the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI demonstrated the symbolic validity of Latin: in February 2013, he announced his historic resignation by reading the declaration in Latin, which meant that only those who knew the language understood the news immediately.
However, the everyday use of Latin began to change with the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Although the Council maintained Latin as the official liturgical language of the Church, it also allowed the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy to encourage the participation of the faithful. In practice, in the following decades, Masses in Latin were widely replaced by celebrations in local languages, and the use of Latin considerably decreased in daily ecclesial life. Nevertheless, the Church attempted to preserve its knowledge: documents such as the apostolic constitution Veterum Sapientia by John XXIII (1962) insisted that seminarians must be solidly trained in Latin, and the current Code of Canon Law still requires future priests to “master the Latin language” (can. 249) in their formation. More recently, under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, there was an impetus to revitalize Latin: in 2012 he created the Pontifical Academy of Latinity (Motu proprio Latina Lingua) and promoted cultural initiatives, and even opened a Twitter account in Latin (@Pontifex_ln) that attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.
Despite its official status and these efforts to maintain it, in practice Italian became the common working language in the Vatican during the last century. Given that Vatican City is enclaved in Rome, Italian came to be used daily in the offices of the Curia and in internal communication, reserving Latin for formal and legal documents. In fact, currently “the State of Vatican City uses Italian as the common language, reserving Latin for official documents” (CatholicNet). Other modern languages are also used depending on the context: for example, popes usually deliver speeches or messages in the language of the country they visit, and many Church documents are translated into multiple languages to reach a global audience.
Latin in Contemporary Vatican: Real Use and Challenges
In recent decades, especially during the pontificate of Pope Francis (2013-2023), a marked decline in the use of Latin as a working language in the Roman Curia was observed, even before the new regulations. For example, in 2014 Pope Francis made the unprecedented decision to abandon Latin as the official language of a worldwide meeting of bishops (Synod on the Family) and designate Italian instead, in order to streamline debates and facilitate understanding among participants. Until then, in previous synods, Latin was usually the official language of documents and some speeches; the decision to switch to Italian represented a break with the past and with the preference of his predecessor Benedict XVI, who just two years earlier had inaugurated a department in the Vatican to promote the study and use of Latin. This anecdote illustrated Francis's new attitude: prioritizing living languages for reasons of pastoral and administrative effectiveness, recognizing that very few participants understood Latin sufficiently to use it actively in international meetings.
A key factor in this trend is that, while Latin remains the official and reference language, fewer and fewer clerics and Curia personnel are fluent in it. In the Curia, there are translators and Latin experts dedicated to preparing the official versions of important texts. In fact, within the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Office of Latin Letters (or Ufficio per la Lingua Latina) has functioned for years, responsible for translating documents into Latin and drafting papal texts in this language when necessary. Thanks to them, the Church has maintained the ability to issue official documents in Latin (for example, doctrinal definitions or canon laws), even if the initial draft was written in another more common language. However, the reality is that many recent Vatican documents are no longer published in Latin or only include a symbolic title in that language. A current example is the apostolic letter In Unitate Fidei (2025) on the Council of Nicaea: it was available in several languages, even Arabic, but not in Latin, beyond the title. This reflects how, in practice, Latin has taken a backseat in official communication, restricted to certain legal texts or very specific celebrations, while modern languages dominate the everyday dissemination of the Church's message.
Paradoxically, despite this practical decline, there continues to be a lively cultural interest in Latin. The Pope's Latin Twitter account, managed by the same Latin Office, has more followers than some minority modern languages. Teachers and students use those brief tweets as a pedagogical exercise, demonstrating that Latin can adapt even to new technologies. Likewise, Catholics around the world still value the historical and spiritual richness of Latin: Masses according to the extraordinary form (traditional Roman rite in Latin) or Gregorian hymns in Latin maintain a devoted audience. Thus, Latin survives in the current Church as a heritage language, studied in seminaries and pontifical universities, used in certain rites and documents, and admired for its beauty and precision; but it no longer serves as the main language of government, since the Church has chosen to communicate its message in the languages spoken by its faithful around the world.
The New Vatican Regulations: End of Latin's Primacy
The new General Regulations of the Roman Curia—promulgated on November 23, 2025, by Pope Leo XIV—has officialized this linguistic shift in focus. This internal regulation updates the functioning of Vatican bodies in line with the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium (2022), and replaces the previous 1999 regulations. The most notable novelty in terms of language is found in Title XIII: “Languages in Use”, whose article 50 states:
Ҥ1. As a general rule, curial institutions shall draft their acts in Latin or in another language.
§2. An office for the Latin language shall be created in the Secretariat of State, at the service of the Roman Curia.
§3. Efforts shall be made to translate the main documents intended for publication into the most widely used languages today.”
This provision represents a historically important change: the end of Latin as the standard language for curial documents. While the wording still mentions «as a general rule», it no longer explicitly designates Latin as the preferred language, but equates it to “another language”. As The Catholic Herald mentions, «Vatican officials privately acknowledge that, now that the normal use of Italian, English, French, and other modern languages is permitted, this will in practice mean the abandonment of Latin». In other words, from 2026, Vatican dicasteries will be able to draft their decrees, decisions, and internal communications directly in modern languages without the need for an initial version in Latin. The phrase “as a general rule” would have made sense if a default language had been indicated (as Latin was before), but as it stands, it suggests that “as a general rule” documents «may be in any language”, which practically eliminates the notion of a principal language and its use over time. This apparent inconsistency indicates that the words “or in another language” were perhaps added during drafting to reflect a reality already in practice, leaving the mention “as a general rule” without much effective weight.
It seems that the latest provisions promulgated by Leo XIV are formalizing what, in practice, had already been introduced in an arbitrary and disorderly manner under the pontificate of Francis. A significant example is the recent modification of the composition of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City. With the entry into force of this reform, the appointment of the religious Raffaella Petrini, who had held the presidency since March 2025 by designation of Francis, despite the then-current regulations reserving that position exclusively to cardinals, has been regularized.
On the other hand, article 50 creates an “office for the Latin language” within the Secretariat of State. It is worth clarifying that this provision is not entirely new: the 1999 regulations also mentioned the existence of a Latin office at the service of the Curia. In practice, that function was carried out by the aforementioned Office of Latin Letters, where linguistic experts prepared the Latin versions of official texts. The reaffirmation of this body suggests that, although Latin ceases to be mandatory as a drafting language, the Vatican does not intend to abandon it completely, but rather to concentrate its use and teaching in a specialized manner. This updated “office for the Latin language” could be responsible for translating into Latin those documents that require it (for example, legal texts that will be incorporated into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official bulletin of the Holy See, which is traditionally published in Latin and other languages). It could also assume a role in safeguarding the proper use of ecclesiastical Latin, acting as a consultant for technical terms and training personnel in this language when necessary.
Between Adaptation and the Continuity of a Tradition
The linguistic reform of the new regulations of the Roman Curia officializes a transition that the Church had already been experiencing: from Latin as the unique and sacred language, toward a practical multilingualism in its everyday administration.
However, Latin does not disappear from the Catholic horizon. It remains the official language of the Church in a legal and symbolic sense, “the language of memory” of the ecclesial community, and the Church will continue to cultivate it. The institution of a specific office for Latin shows the intention to keep this unique heritage alive—although relegated. After all, Latin has endured in history thanks to the Church, as have many other cultural riches of which the Church has been a promoter and custodian.