ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE LATINITAS FOUNDATION

Saturday, 29 November 1997

This use of the Latin language greatly pleases and encourages me, since - unfortunately! - it is rarely heard anywhere. Therefore, it is with all the more enthusiasm that I welcome you, the directors and members of the Latinitas Foundation, and greet you with even warmer cordiality. To you Mother Church has entrusted, as it were ex officio, the cultivation and promotion of this magnificent language, through the foresight of my Predecessor Paul VI and his chirograph Romani sermonis.

Your painstaking skill and diligence are shown in the text Lexicon recentis latinitatis, a successfully completed copy of which I am pleased to hold in my hands and peruse. In congratulating you for this expression of learning and useful tool, I cannot fail to praise your hard work, encourage you in your fruitful endeavours and grant you my Apostolic Blessing, and thus the future of the Latin language, through your efforts, may undoubtedly be assured.

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