Pope Francis Relishing His Latin

During today's canonization Mass, entirely in Latin, it is evident that Pope Francis is paying close attention to the prayers he is saying and texts he is reading in Latin.

You can tell that he is liking it and going over it in his mind, a development from the initial stages of his Papacy when he just mumbled uncertainly and carelessly over the various declensions not paying much attention to what he was saying.

In Spanish it is common and often OK to cut off the ends of words, that's how people talk, e.g dropping the s's. In Latin that type of sloppiness is fatal to the meaning and makes the sentences completely unintelligible. Pope Francis is getting that! His early Jesuit classical scholastic training of the late 50's, early 60's is paying off!

Pay attention to your Latin! Love it in your love of Christ and His Church! Romanitas! Latinitas!

Archbishop Fouad Twal's Latin diction was impeccable. He is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. It is so significant for the Holy Father's Mass with that Jerusalem Patriarch (of Jordanian origin) to use Latin for the Mass! an instrument of unity: "Ut unum sint!" Jn. 17:21. (From the Gospel of the 7th Sunday of Easter [B]).

Ut unum sint linguam latinam bene calleant! May they know their Latin well in order to be one with one another, with the truth and, indeed, with Christ!

Cf. Canon 249 of The 1983 Code of Canon Law: "The Program of priestly formation is to provide that the students...are also well versed in Latin...!" Shameful indeed if the Supreme Pontiff should give evidence of a shabby priestly formation!

All the more reason that the traditional Latin Mass should be an essential ingredient of every Cathedral of the world and of every Catholic bishop's personal piety. It's the spirit of the law! Know it, love it, do it! It grows on you!, languages are like that. They become part of you and identify you, where you're from, to what nation you belong! Romam pertineo!

From the start the Holy Father's preferred self-referential title has been "The Bishop of Rome." He repeated it eight times in impromptu his election speech. Well, Latin is the language Romae Aeternae, Urbi et Orbi!

P.S. Notice also the Holy Father is again using the ferula of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI as you see in the picture below. There seems to be some type of pattern. He deliberately uses Benedict's staff for certain occasions. Not sure what that pattern is.