How do you say boomer in Latin? Latinists keep the language up to date in the Vatican

How do you say boomer in Latin?, Roberto Fusco, 55, recently wondered, as he listened to a conversation between his children, aged 14 and 16. So far, Pope Francis has never mentioned the word in any speech or book, so the classicist has plenty of time to think it over again.

That is not always the case. The cheerful Italian is probably the only translator of Latin texts in the world whose work involves fast deadlines. Also unusual: with his translations – not of Latin in his mother tongue, but the other way around – he immediately reaches almost a million readers.

In addition to his work at the Papal Salesiana University, Fusco is the translator of Pope Francis’ tweets. The academic, who is dressed as carefully in his suit and bow tie as he chooses his words, works in the Latin Literature Department of Vatican City.

Here, under the meter-high ceilings of the marble-clad papal offices in Rome, he and his five colleagues try to keep the official language of the Vatican alive with all their might. In the chair next to Fusco, Monsignor Waldemar Turek is leafing through the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatisa modern Latin dictionary produced by their predecessors.

The priest and Latinist of Polish origin has been working in the Latin department of the Vatican since 1991 and took charge there seven years ago. He is looking for the entry for ‘nuclear weapons’, a modern concept that was already extremely relevant around the appearance of the lexicon in 1992.

Don’t you dare label Latin as a dead language, because it is anything but a stone’s throw from St. Peter’s. Although Fusco and Turek also frankly admit that things have sometimes been better with Latin. It’s an open secret that the official language of Vatican City is hardly heard anywhere in the stately galleries.

In theory, the language of the ancient Romans could only be heard in their own offices, Fusco and Turek confirm, but in practice it is also Italian that works there – interspersed with Latin terms, that is.

New words

In the training of young priests there is often almost no attention for Latin, says Turek. ‘The mentality has changed. Not only in the world, but also in the church.’ There is less emphasis on the humanities and more on subjects such as psychology and sociology, he explains. ‘Understandable choices, but some priests have never had one hour of Latin in their lives’, the Latinist sighs.

It sometimes happens, Fusco chuckles, that they draw up an official ecclesiastical document in Latin – one of the main tasks of the Latin department – ​​and receive an immediate answer from the receiving priest: whether the Italian translation can please be supplied.

And what about Pope Francis’ own Latin? ‘The Holy Father comes from a generation that still had a lot of Latin in the education’, Turek answers diplomatically. Fusco gestures with a grin to the publications of the Latin department, which lie on the coffee table in front of him: ‘This is Pope Francis’ Latin!’

It’s not all doom and gloom, Turek hastens to emphasize. But, he says, it seems that lately there has been more attention for Latin outside the church than inside. For a few years now, the Latin section has been making a weekly radio program (in Italian) about Latin. Also the Italian version of the gymnasium, the liceo classicois still popular.

No, the cleric is not seriously concerned. ‘Latin has survived in the church for seventeen centuries, which is much longer than Italian or English.’ Fusco also sees the future optimistically: ‘I think that the interest in the humanities always runs in cycles. In the meantime, you just need people to keep the fire burning.’

It is precisely this task that the Vatican’s Latin department takes very seriously, although their work has not gotten any easier since Pope Francis took office in 2013. This is not only because, since the arrival of the Argentinian, papal twitter accounts have existed in ten languages ​​– among which the official language must of course not be missing – but also because this pope broaches topics that no leader of the Catholic Church has touched before.

Globalization, climate change, the quantum computer: these are all areas in which it makes little sense for Fusco and Turek to browse through their usual sources – Church Fathers Augustine and Tertullian, classical authors Seneca and Cicero. Many of the developments Pope Francis speaks of simply do not yet have a Latin vocabulary.

This offers opportunities for an office that can come up with new words, but like the rest of the Vatican, the Latin department also has a predominantly conservative approach. ‘We want to create as few neologisms as possible’, says Fusco. ‘We prefer to use traditional vocabulary.’

A new word is only allowed if that really produces too long descriptive definitions – because let’s try to summarize globalization in succinct Latin. It became globalization. Simple and effective, although Fusco fears that it will be an eyesore for the purists among the classicists.

Conservatism

But not only colleagues sometimes look at their work with skepticism. Beyond that too, Latin often evokes – and not entirely incomprehensibly – associations with right-wing politics and extreme traditionalism.

For example, references to Latin (and classical antiquity in a more general sense) often serve a politically conservative agenda. For example, Republicans in the United States scattering classic quotes, or closer to home, Thierry Baudet, who speaks a bit of Latin. ‘We have a certain image’, Fusco also realizes. “But the use of Latin or the ancient tradition is not necessarily conservative.”

He believes that Latinists could do more to democratize the image of their profession. ‘We shouldn’t ex cathedra (from the pulpit, red.) talk,” he says firmly. ‘But also on radio, TV, online. Because the content of many texts is not elitist.’

This is perhaps best demonstrated by a phenomenon that many a classicist has to deal with sooner or later in life: the request to translate a Latin or Greek wisdom for a tattoo. Fusco sighs. ‘Those lyrics often evoke the kind of association that I would like to avoid.’ He is referring to popular militaristic mottos such as nil difficile volenti (‘nothing is difficult for one who wants’) or veni, vidi, vici. ‘But it is a sign that those sentences are still alive’, Turek counters hopefully.

Meanwhile, the priest triumphantly holds up an A4 sheet of paper. It is a list of the Papal twitter accounts in ten languages, ordered by the number of followers, that he especially for the visit of de Volkskrant has printed. ‘We are not the last!’, he notes with delight.

With 20 thousand new followers to go to the million, Latin wins by far from the German and Arabic account. How many people actually read and analyze the texts so carefully composed by Fusco is another matter. But even though the men consider many of their other translation tasks more important, it is a welcome secular recognition for their monastic work.

What is the best Latin translation for boomer? Fusco thinks for a moment. ineptus (‘fool’), perhaps? He actually wants to understand the concept better first. “All I know now is that my kids will find me one.” Wait, he corrects himself, on closer inspection he finds vetus ineptus (‘old fool’) better anyway. Laughing: ‘Our work always remains current.’