ain, France and Germany. The lips of those
Continental Bishops would be sealed because they could not speak to their
English brothers; their ears also would be sealed because they could not
comprehend what was said to them.

In 1869, at the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, were assembled Bishops
from all parts of the world speaking all the civilized languages of
Christendom. Had those Bishops no uniform language to express their
thoughts, public debates and familiar conversation among them would have
been impracticable. The Council Chamber would have been a confused Babel
of tongues. But, thanks to the Latin language, which they all spoke
(except a few Orientals), their speeches were as plainly understood as if
each had spoken in his native dialect.

Third--Moreover, the Bishops and Clergy of the Catholic Church are in
frequent correspondence with the Holy See. This requires that they should
communicate in one uniform language, otherwise the Pope would be compelled
to employ secretaries speaking every language in Christendom.

But if the Priest says Mass in an unknown tongue, are not the people
thereby kept in ignorance of what he says, and is not their time wasted in
Church? We are forced to smile at such charges, which are flippantly
repeated from year to year. These assertions arise from a total ignorance
of the Mass. Many Protestants imagine that the essence of public worship
consists in a sermon. Hence, to their minds, the primary duty of a
congregation is to listen to a discourse from the pulpit. Prayer, on the
contrary, according to Catholic teaching, is the most essential duty of a
congregation, though they are also regularly instructed by sermons. Now,
what is the Mass? It is not a sermon, but it is a sacrifice of prayer
which the Priest offers up to God for himself and the people. When the
Priest says Mass he is speaking not to the people, but to God, to whom all
languages are equally intelligible.

The congregation, indeed, could not be expected to hear the Priest, even
if he spoke in English, since his face is turned from them, and the
greater part of what he says is pronounced in an undertone. And this was
the system of worship God ordained in the ancient dispensation, as we
learn from the Old Testament and from the first chapter of St. Luke. The
Priest offered sacrifice and prayed for the people in the sanctuary, while
they prayed at a distance in the court. In all the schismatic churches of
the East