Do you remember the British comedy group “Beyond the Fringe”? We love the LP record in our house.
I was thinking about a Peter Cook “Beyond the Fringe” sketch today because I have been reading tweets in Latin and my husband and I always joke about the English miner in Cook’s “Sitting on the Bench” routine who was wistful about not becoming a judge.
“I could have been a judge, but I never had the Latin, never had the Latin for the judgin’.”
The Latin tweets I’ve been following are from Pope Francis, who is said to have gathered a large following who just like Latin. I am not a Catholic, but a lot of what the new Pope has said impresses me, especially his cautions against materialism and his concern for those who suffer. I also like exercising the rusty hinges in my brain where fuzzy memories of Latin are stored. And if I don’t quite get the whole tweet, Google Translate is available — and turns out to be much better at Latin than, say, Swedish or Arabic.
I retweeted this missive:
Papa Franciscus @Pontifex_ln 22 Jun
Si sensum vitae in Iesu invenimus, eos negligere non possumus qui patiuntur quique sunt tristes.
Google Translate: If we find the meaning of life in Jesus, we can not ignore those who suffer and those who are sad.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Yay for Latin and a spiritual leader who uses a dead language to inspire the living.
Thanks so much for commenting. I will be watching your blog, too — http://amusicalifeonplanetearth.wordpress.com/. I have not caught one of your musical performances for a while, but I always enjoy them.
It’s great that Pope Francis is buoying the dead language by utilizing social media. Worlds collide!
You could say social media is bringing Latin back since the few people who are still interested in it can easily connect. New technology doesn’t need to be seen as a threat to old ones.