In the present instance these words are taken to mean the Latin we find in the official textbooks of the Church (the Bible and the Liturgy), as well as in the works of those Christian writers of the West who have undertaken to expound or defend Christian beliefs.

Characteristics

Ecclesiastical differs from classical Latin especially by the introduction of new idioms and new words. (In syntax and literary method, Christian writers are not different from other contemporary writers.) These characteristic differences are due to the origin and purpose of ecclesiastical Latin. Originally the Roman people spoke the old tongue of Latium known as prisca latinitas. In the third century B. C. Ennius and a few other writers trained in the school of the Greeks undertook to enrich the language with Greek embellishments. This attempt was encouraged by the cultured classes in Rome, and it was to these classes that henceforth the poets, orators, historians, and literary coteries of Rome addressed themselves. Under the combined influence of this political and intellectual aristocracy was developed that classical Latin which has been preserved for us in greatest purity in the works of Caesar and of Cicero. The mass of the Roman populace in their native ruggedness remained aloof from this hellenizing influence and continued to speak the old tongue. Thus it came to pass that after the third century B. C. there existed side by side in Rome two languages, or rather two idioms: that of the literary circles or hellenists (sermo urbanus) and that of the illiterate (sermo vulgaris) and the more highly the former developed the greater grew the chasm between them. But in spite of all the efforts of the purists, the exigencies of daily life brought the writers of the cultured mode into continual touch with the uneducated populace, and constrained them to understand its speech and make it understand them in turn; so that they were obliged in conversation to employ words and expressions forming part of the vulgar tongue. Hence arose a third idiom, the sermo cotidianus, a medley of the two others, varying in the mixture of its ingredients with the various periods of time and the intelligence of those who used it.

Origins

Classical Latin did not long remain at the high level to which Cicero had raised it. The aristocracy, who alone spoke it, were decimated by proscription and civil war, and the families who rose in turn to social position were mainly of plebeian or foreign extraction, and in any case unaccustomed to the delicacy of the literary language. Thus the decadence of classical Latin began with the age of Augustus, and went on more rapidly as that age receded. As it forgot the classical distinction between the language of prose and that of poetry, literary Latin, spoken or written, began to borrow more and more freely from the popular speech. Now it was at this very time that the Church found herself called on to construct a Latin of her own and this in itself was one reason why her Latin should differ from the classical. There were two other reasons however: first of all the Gospel had to be spread by preaching, that is, by the spoken word moreover the heralds of the good tidings had to construct an idiom that would appeal, not alone to the literary classes, but to the whole people. Seeing that they sought to win the masses to the Faith, they had to come down to their level and employ a speech that was familiar to their listeners. St. Augustine says this very frankly to his hearers: "I often employ", he says, "words that are not Latin and I do so that you may understand me. Better that I should incur the blame of the grammarians than not be understood by the people" (In Psal. cxxxviii, 90). Strange though it may seem, it was not at Rome that the building up of ecclesiastical Latin began. Until the middle of the third century the Christian community at Rome was in the main a Greek speaking one. The Liturgy was celebrated in Greek, and the apologists and theologians wrote in Greek until the time of St. Hippolytus, who died in 235. It was much the same in Gaul at Lyons and at Vienne, at all events until after the days of St. Irenaeus. In Africa, Greek was the chosen language of the clerics, to begin with, but Latin was the more familiar speech for the majority of the faithful, and it must have soon taken the lead in the Church, since Tertullian, who wrote some of his earlier works in Greek, ended by employing Latin only. And in this use he had been preceded by Pope Victor, who was also an African, and who, as St. Jerome assures, was the earliest Christian writer in the Latin language.

But even before these writers various local Churches must have seen the necessity of rendering into Latin the texts of the Old and New Testaments, the reading of which formed a main portion of the Liturgy. This necessity arose as soon as the Latin speaking faithful became numerous, and in all likelihood it was felt first in Africa. For a time improvised oral translations sufficed, but soon written translations were required. Such translations multiplied. "It is possible to enumerate", says St. Augustine, "those who have translated the Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek, but not those who have translated them into Latin. In sooth in the early days of faith whoso possessed a Greek manuscript and thought he had some knowledge of both tongues was daring enough to undertake a translation" (De doct. christ., II, xi). From our present point of view the multiplicity of these translations, which were destined to have so great an influence on the formation of ecclesiastical Latin, helps to explain the many colloquialisms which it assimilated, and which are found even in the most famous of these texts, that of which St. Augustine said: "Among all translations the Itala is to be preferred, for its language is most accurate, and its expression the clearest" (De doct. christ., II, xv). While it is true that many renderings of this passage have been given, the generally accepted one, and the one we content ourselves with mentioning here, is that the Itala is the most important of the Biblical recensions from Italian sources, dating from the fourth century, used by St. Ambrose and the Italian authors of that day, which have been partially preserved to us in many manuscripts and are to be met with even in St. Augustine himself. With some slight modifications its version of the deuterocanonical works of the Old Testament was incorporated into St. Jerome's "Vulgate".

Elements from African Sources

But even in this respect Africa had been beforehand with Italy. As early as A. D. 180 mention is made in the Acts of the Scilltitan martyrs of a translation of the Gospels and of the Epistles of St. Paul. "In Tertullian's time", says Harnack, "there existed translations, if not of all the books of the Bible at least of the greater number of them." It is a fact. however, that none of them possessed any predominating authority, though a few were beginning to claim a certain respect. And thus we find Tertullian and St. Cyprian using those by preference, as appears from the concordance of their quotations. The interesting point in these translations made by many hands is that they form one of the principal elements of Church Latin: they make up, so to say, the popular contribution. This is to be seen in their disregard for complicated inflections, in their analytical tendencies, and in the alterations due to analogy. Pagan littérateurs, as Arnobius tells (Adv. nat., I, xlv-lix), complained that these texts were edited in a trivial and mean speech, in a vitiated and uncouth language.

But to the popular contribution the more cultivated Christians added their share in forming the Latin of the Church. If the ordinary Christian could translate the "Acts of St. Perpetua", the "Pastor" of Hermas the "Didache", and the "First Epistle" of Clement it took a scholar to put into Latin the "Acta Pauli" and St. Irenaeus's treatise "Adversus haereticos", as well as other works which seem to have been translated in the second and third century. It is not known to what country these translators belonged, but, in the case of original works, Africa leads the way with Tertullian, who has been rightly styled the creator of the language of the Church. Born at Carthage, he studied and perhaps taught rhetoric there: he studied law and acquired a vast erudition; he was converted to Christianity, raised to the priesthood, and brought to the service of the Faith an ardent zeal and a forceful eloquence to which the number and character of his works bear witness. He touched on every subject apologetics, polemics, dogma, discipline, exegesis. He had to express a host of ideas which the simple faith of the communities of the west had not yet grasped. With his fiery temperament, his doctrinal rigidness, and his disdain for literary canons, he never hesitated to use the pointed word, the everyday phrase. Hence the marvelous exactness of his style, its restless vigour and high relief, the loud tones as of words thrown impetuously together: hence, above all, a wealth of expressions and words, many of which came then for the first time into ecclesiastical Latin and have remained there ever since. Some of these are Greek words in Latin dress - baptisma, charisma, extasis, idolatria, prophetia, martyr, etc. -- some are given a Latin termination -- daemonium, allegorizare, Paracletus, etc. -- some are law terms or old Latin words used in a new sense -- ablutio, gratia, sacramentum, saeculum, persecutor, peccator. The greater part are entirely new, but are derived from Latin sources and regularly inflected according to the ordinary rules affecting analogous words -- annunciatio, concupiscentia, christianismus, coeaeternus, compatibilis, trinitas, vivificare, etc. Many of these new words (more than 850 of them) have died out, but a very large portion are still to be found in ecclesiastical use; they are mainly those that met the need of expressing strictly Christian ideas. Nor is it certain that all of these owe their origin to Tertullian, but before his time they are not to be met with in the texts that have come down to us, and very often it is he who has naturalized them in Christian terminology.

The part St. Cyprian played in this building of the language was less important. The famous Bishop of Carthage never lost that respect for classical tradition which he inherited from his education and his previous profession of rhetor; he preserved that concern for style which led him to the practice of the literary methods so dear to the rhetors of his day. His language shows this even when he is dealing with Christian topics. Apart from his rather cautious imitation of Tertullian's vocabulary, we find in his writings not more than sixty new words, a few Hellenisms -- apostata, gazophylacium -- a few popular words or phrases - magnalia, mammona -- or a few words formed by added inflections -- apostatare, clarificatio. In St. Augustine's case it was his sermons preached to the people that mainly contributed to ecclesiastical Latin, and present it to us at its best; for, in spite of his assertion that he cares nothing for the sneers of the grammarians, his youthful studies retained too strong a hold on him to permit of his departing from classical speech more than was strictly necessary. He was the first to find fault with the use of certain words common at the time, such as dolus for dolor, effloriet for florebit, ossum for os. The language he uses includes, besides a large part of classical Latin and the ecclesiastical Latin of Tertullian and St. Cyprian, borrowings from the popular speech of his day -- incantare, falsidicus, tantillus, cordatus -- and some new words or words in new meaning -- spiritualis, adorator, beatificus, aedificare, meaning to edify, inflatio, meaning pride, reatus, meaning guilt, etc. It is, we think, useless to pursue this inquiry into the realm of Christian inscriptions and the works of Victor of Vito, the last of these Latin writers, as we should only find a Latin peculiar to certain individuals rather than that adopted by any Christian communities. Nor shall we delay over Africanisms, i. e. characteristics peculiar to African writers. The very existence of these characteristics, formerly so strongly held by many philologists, is nowadays generally questioned. In the works of several of these African writers we find a pronounced love for emphasis, alliteration, and rhythm, but these are matters affecting style rather than vocabulary. The most that can be said is that the African writers take more account of Latin as it was spoken (sermo cotidianus) but this speech was no peculiarity of Africa.

St. Jerome's Contribution

After the African writers no author had such influence on the upbuilding of ecclesiastical Latin as St. Jerome had. His contribution came mainly along the lines of literary Latin. From his master, Donatus, he had received a grammatical instruction that made him the most literary and learned of the Fathers, and he always retained a love for correct diction, and an attraction towards Cicero. He prized good writing so highly that he grew angry whenever he was accused of a solecism; one-half of the words he uses are taken from Cicero and it has been computed that besides employing, as occasion required, the words introduced by earlier writers, he himself is responsible for three hundred and fifty new words in the vocabulary of ecclesiastical Latin; yet of this number there are hardly nine or ten that may fitly be considered as barbarisms on the score of not conforming to the general laws of Latin derivatives. "The remainder", says Goelzer, "were created by employing ordinary suffixes and were in harmony with the genius of the language." They are both accurately formed and useful words, expressing for the most part abstract qualities necessitated by the Christian religion and which hitherto had not existed in the Latin tongue, e. g., clericatus, impoenitentia, deitas, dualitas, glorificatio, corruptrix. At times, also, to supply new needs, he gives new meanings to old words: conditor, creator, redemptor, saviour of the world, predestinatio, communio, etc. Besides this enriching of the lexicon, St. Jerome rendered no less service to ecclesiastical Latin by his edition of the Vulgate. Whether he made his translation from the original text or adapted previous translations after correcting them he diminished, by that much, the authority of the many popular versions which could not fail to be prejudicial to the correctness of the language of the Church. By this very same act he popularized a number of Hebraisms and modes of speech -- vir desideriorum, filii iniquitatis, hortus voluptatis, inferioris a Daniele, inferior to Daniel -- which completed the shaping of the peculiar physiognomy of church Latin.

After St. Jerome's time ecclesiastical Latin may be said to be fully formed on the whole. If we trace the various steps of the process of producing it we find

• that the ecclesiastical rites and institutions were first of all known by Greek names, and that the early Christian writers in the Latin language took those words consecrated by usage and embodied them in their works either in toto (e. g., angelus, apostolus, ecclesia, evangelium, clerus, episcopus, martyr) or else translated them (e. g., verbum, persona, testamentum, gentilis). It sometimes even happened that words bodily incorporated were afterwards replaced by translations (e.g., chrisma by donum, hypostasis by substantia or persona, exomologesis by confessio, synodus by concilium).

• Latin words were created by derivations from existing Latin or Greek words by the addition of suffixes or prefixes, or by the combination of two or more words together (e. g., evangelizare, Incarnatio, consubstantialis, idololatria).

• At times words having a secular or profane meaning are employed without any modification in a new sense (e. g.. fidelis, depositio, scriptura, sacramentum, resurgere, etc.). With respect to its elements ecclesiastical Latin consists of spoken Latin (sermo cotidianus) shot through with a quantity of Greek words, a few primitive popular phrases, some new and normal accretions to the language, and, lastly various new meanings arising mainly from development or analogy.

With the exception of some Hebraic or Hellenist expressions popularized through Bible translations, the grammatical peculiarities to be met with in ecclesiastical Latin are not to be laid to the charge of Christianity; they are the result of an evolution through which the common language passed, and are to be met with among non-Christian writers. In the main the religious upheaval which was colouring all t he beliefs and customs of the Western world did not unsettle the language as much as might have been expected. Christian writers preserved the literary Latin of their day as the basis of their language, and if they added to it certain neologisms it must not be forgotten that the classical writers, Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca, etc., had before this to lament the poverty of Latin to express philosophical ideas, and had set the example of coining words. Why should later writers hesitate to say annunciatio, incarnatio, predestinatio, when Cicero had said monitio, debitio, prohibitio, and Livy, coercitio? Words like deitas, nativitas, trinitas are not more odd than autumnitas, olivitas, coined by Varro, and plebitas, which was used by the elder Cato.

Development in the Liturgy

Hardly had it been formed when church Latin had to undergo the shock of the invasion of the barbarians and the fall of the Empire of the West; it was a shock that gave the death-blow to literary Latin as well as to the Latin of everyday speech on which church Latin was waxing strong. Both underwent a series of changes that completely transformed them. Literary Latin became more and more debased; popular Latin evolved into the various Romance languages in the South, while in the North it gave way before the Germanic tongues. Church Latin alone lived, thanks to the religion of which it was the organ and with which its destinies were linked. True, it lost a portion of its sway; in popular preaching it gave way to the vernacular after the seventh century; but it could still claim the Liturgy and theology, and in these it served the purpose of a living language. In the liturgy ecclesiastical Latin shows its vitality by its fruitfulness. Africa is once more in the lead with St. Cyprian. Besides the singing of the Psalms and the readings in public from the Bible, which made up the main portion of the primitive liturgy and which we already know, it shows itself in set prayers in a love for rhythm, for well- balanced endings that were to remain for centuries during the Middle Ages the main characteristics of liturgical Latin. As the process of development went on, this love of harmony held sway over all prayers; they followed the rules of metre and prosody to begin with, but rhythmical cursus gained the upper-hand from the fourth to the seventh, and from the eleventh to the fifteenth, century.

As is well known, the cursus consists in a certain arrangement of words, accents, and sometimes whole phrases, whereby a pleasing modulated effect is produced. The prayer of the "Angelus" is the simplest example of this; it contains all three kinds of cursus that are to be met with in the prayers of the Missal and the Breviary:

• the cursus planus, "nostris infunde";

• the cursus tardus, "incarnationem cognovimus";

• the cursus velox, "gloriam perducamur." So great was their influence over the language that the cursus passed from the prayers of the liturgy into some of the sermons of St. Leo and a few others, to papal Bulls from the twelfth to the fifteenth century and into many Latin letters written during the Middle Ages.

Besides the prayers, hymns make up the most vital thing in the Liturgy. From St. Hilary of Poitiers, to whom St. Jerome attributes the earliest, down to Leo XIII, who composed many hymns, the number of hymn writers is very great, and their output, as we learn from recent research, is beyond computing. Suffice it to say that these hymns originated in popular rhythms founded on accent; as a rule they were modelled on classical metres, but gradually metre gave way to beat or number of syllables and accent. Since the Renaissance, rhythm has again given way to metre; and many old hymns were even retouched, under Urban VIII, to bring then into line with the rules of classical prosody.

Besides this liturgy which we may style official, and which was made up of words of the Mass, of the Breviary, or of the Ritual, we may recall the wealth of literature dealing with a variety of historical detail such as the "Pereginatio ad Loca sancta" formerly attributed to Silvia, many collections of rubrics, ordines, sacramentaries, ordinaries, or other books of a religious bearing, of which so many have been edited of late years in England either by private individuals or by the Surtees' Society and the Bradshaw Society. But the most we can do is to mention the brilliant liturgical efflorescence.

Development in Theology

Wider and more varied is the field theology opens up for ecclesiastical Latin; so wide that we must restrict ourselves to pointing out the creative resources which the Latin we speak of has given proof of since the beginning of the study of speculative theology, i. e., from the writings of the earliest Fathers down to our own day. More than elsewhere, it has here shown how capable it is of expressing the most delicate shades of theological thought, or the keenest hairsplitting of decadent Scholasticism. Need we mention what it has done in this field? The expression it has created, the meanings it has conveyed are only too well known. Whereas the major part of these expressions were legitimate, were necessary and successful -- transsubstantio, forma, materia, individuum, accidens, appetitus -- there are only too many that show a wordy and empty formalirm, a deplorable indifference for the sobriety of expression and for the purity of the Latin tongue -- aseitas, futuritio, beatificativum, terminatio, actualitas, haecceitas, etc. It was by such words as these that the language of theology exposed itself to the jibes of Erasmus and Rabelais, and brought discredit on a study that was deserving of more consideration. With the Renaissance, men's minds became more difficult to satisfy, readers of cultured taste could not tolerate a language so foreign to the genius of the classical Latinity that had been revived. It became necessary even for renowned theologians like Melchior Cano in the preface to his "Loci Theologici", to raise their voices against the demands of their readers as well as against the carelessness and obscurity of former theologians. It may be laid down that about this time classic correctness began to find a place in theological as well as in liturgical Latin.

Present Position

Henceforth correctness was to be the characteristic of ecclesiastical Latin. To the terminology consecrated for the expression of the faith of the Catholic Church it now adds as a rule that grammatical accuracy which the Renaissance gave back to us. But in our own age, thanks to a variety of causes, some of which arise from the evolution of educational programmes, the Latin of the Church has lost in quantity what it has gained in quality. Until recently, Latin had retained its place in the Liturgy, as it was seen to point out and watch over, in the very bosom of the Church, that unity of belief in all places and throughout all times which is her birthright. But in the devotional hymns that accompany the ritual the vernacular alone is used, and these hymns are gradually replacing the liturgical hymns. All the official documents of the Church, Encyclicals, Bulls, Briefs, institutions of bishops, replies from the Roman Congregations, acts of provincial councils, are written in Latin. Within recent years, however, solemn Apostolic letters addressed to one or other nation have been in their own tongue, and various diplomatic documents have been drawn up in French or in Italian. In the training of the clergy, the necessity of discussing modern systems whether of exegesis or philosophy, has led almost everywhere to the use of the national tongue. Manuals of dogmatic and moral theology may be written in Latin, in Italy, Spain, and France, but often, save in the Roman universities, the oral explanation thereof is given in the vernacular. In German and English speaking countries most of the manuals are in their own tongue, and nearly always the explanation is in the same languages.

The Indian Catholic Church is a communion of three individual Churches: Latin Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara.  The Latin Church has 113 ecclesiastical units out of 140 dioceses.

The presence of Latin Church in India, particularly on the coast of Quilon (Kollam), has protracted over eleven centuries or more.

However, the work of evangelization was enthusiastically revived by the Western missionaries in the 13^th century.  The western records of the Franciscans and Dominicans contain the evidence of the early Latin Missions in India.  John Motecorvino, Jordan Catalani and John Marignolin were the outstanding protagonists.

They testify the existence of Christian community at Mylapur and Quilon.  Montecorvino, a Franciscan, stayed at Mylapur (1292) and other places on the Coromandal and Malabar Coasts.  Catalani of Sevrac, a Dominican, was the first resident foreign Catholic missionary in India.

Pope John XXII (1326-34), in recognition of the zeal of Jordan, erected the diocese of Quilon with the Cathedral Church on August9, 1329, and nominated him as the first LatinBishop of Quilon.  The extent of the See comprised all the medieval mission regions of India and Southeast Asia.  The Franciscan John Marignoli, who had come as Papal Legateto the East, on his return journey stayed at Quilon for several months.

The arrival of the Portuguese missionaries in India in 1498 opened a new jurisdiction of the Portuguese Padroado in the field of Mission.  Cochin and Goa became two main settlement of Portuguese in the 16^th century.  As a result, the City of Goa was erected suffragan to Lisbon and then raised to Archbishopric by Pope Paul IV on Feb4, 1558, with Cochin and Malacca being its suffragans.

The foundation of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide on jan.6, 1662, by  Pope Gregory XV introduced a new epoch in mission history.  Propaganda Fide constituted three  Apostolic Vicariates and aPrefecture in India in the 17^th century.  The Vicariate of Malabar that began in 1657 was one of the prominent ecclesiastical units which comprised both Suriani and Latin Catholics.  Pope Leo XIII made a new concordat with Portugal concerning the territories under Padroado.

The Catholic Hierarchy of India was constituted through the bull Humanae Salutis by Pope Leo XIII on Sept. 1, 1886 with six provinces: Agra, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Pondicherry and Verapoly, and 10 units were created as dioceses: Allahabad, Cochin, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Krishnagar, Mysore, Pune, Quilon, Tiruchirapally and Vishakapattanam and  Patna continued to function as a Vicariate.  Thus, when the Hierarchy was established in 1886 there were 17 ecclesiastical units under Propaganda and two units- the Archdiocese of Goa and the Diocese of Mylapur-under Padroado.  The two Apostolic Vicariats for the Syrian Catholics were erected in Trichur and Kottayam on May.20, 1887.

The Indian Missionary bishops in 1944 formed the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Pius XII in 1948 established the internunciature of India.  Portugal gradually renounced its missionary patronage in India.  In the mission treaty of July 18, 1950, Portugal renounced its rights in the nomination of the Ordinaries of Mangalore, Quilon, Trichinapally, Cochin, Mylapur and Bombay.

The Bishops of Cochin and Mylapur were transferred to titular Sees in the same year.  On Jan. 26, 1951, Pope declared the Mother of God patroness of the country.  Pius XII created a Cardinal from Bombay in the consistory of Jan.12, 1953.  The 38^th Eucharistic Congress was held in Bombay and Pope Paul VI honored it with his presence from 2 to 5 November 1964.

Pope John Paul II, by his letter dated May 28, 1987, to the bishops of India, determined that the bishops of each of the three Rites have the right to establish their own Episcopal bodies according to their own ecclesiastical legislation.  The three ritual Episcopal bodies are: Conference of Catholic Bishops’ in India (CCBI) for the Latin Rite, Syro-Malabar Bishops’ Synod and Syro-Malankara Bishops’ Conference.  There are also at present 12 regional Bishops’ Councils.

     Pope Alexander VI in 1493 divided the newly discovered world and entrusted the western region to Spain and the eastern region to Portugal for missionary activities. By a papal decree of 1497 the whole East was placed under the diocese of Lisbon.

A new era dawned on the religious horizon in India, by the discovery in 1498 of a new sea-route by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco de Gama. De Gama was followed by missionary priests, both secular and Franciscan. In 1500 they set up an Oratory in Calicut and began evangelisation. A fortress was built in Cochin in 1505, and it became the seat of the Portuguese Viceroy from 1505 to 1530 when it was shifted to Goa. In 1534 Goa became a suffragan see of the Funchal Archdiocese in the Madeira Island under the jurisdiction of Padroado.

The setting up of Goa as a diocese in 1534 with India and the other East Asian regions as its territory was the first step towards an autonomous Latin Church in India under the Padroado. This status received fuller expression in 1558 when Goa was raised to an archdiocese with Cochin (comprising the Dravidian South and Bengal) and Malacca as suffragan sees. Mylapur was added to these in 1606.

Goa's jurisdiction extended from the cape of Good Hope as far as China. All these were under the Padroado of the king of Portugal, which carried with it obligations and privileges. Among the privileges was the right to present to the Pope candidates for these sees.

The Portuguese came with a clear purpose of conquering the world for their "God, and King". With the capture of Goa in 1510, their cultural aggression also became decisive. Having inherited the gloomy ideas of the Middle Ages about the non-Christian world that it was all under the sway of Satan to be conquered and converted to the Church, the only "saving boat", the "only citadel of salvation", they thought it was their mission to convert as many as possible and as quickly a possible. They ordered that all Hindus in their territory should become Christians. Or else, they should vacate their place. Temples were closed and their properties were confiscated. Conversions were forced. Gospel preaching was made compulsory.

When the slaves of Muslims or Hindus became Christians, their masters were obliged to sell them to Christians for a suitable sum. Official positions in India were to be given to Christians, and definitely, not to Brahmins. Christian converts in Goa enjoyed the same privileges as the Portuguese. The construction of temples, the worship of idols, and the practice of non-Christian ceremonies were strictly forbidden. Those who tried to hinder the conversion of others were given severe punishment. Banishment from Goa of Brahmins, who were considered harmful, was quite common.

The Latin Christian communities emerged from the 16th century onwards, initially along the coastal region, in and around the Portuguese trade centers and forts and in the Portuguese enclaves. It was with the De Nobili Movement that Christianity reached the interior. We shall discuss about this very soon.

The autonomy and the Indianness of the Latin Church in India were necessarily compromised first by the fact that the Padroado Christianity was built up with the protection of Portugal, the colonial power, and secondly by the fact that the Christians particularly in Portuguese enclaves, lived a privileged life. The Christian community was more equal than the other - Hindu and Muslim - communities.

During the 16th century, Christianity made great progress in the Portuguese trade centers and inside the Portuguese enclaves. But Christianity had made hardly any contact with the more respectable classes of the Hindus, especially outside Portuguese territories. Christianity presented itself as the religion of the "Parangis", the term used to denote the Portuguese in India. It was not a complementary term; it suggested meat-eating, wine-drinking, loose-living, arrogant persons whose manners were so far removed from Indian propriety that social intercourse with them was unthinkable. In a report sent to Rome in 1613, Fr. Robert de Nobili, an Italian Jesuit, wrote that the Portuguese not only endeavored to Christianize the Indians, but they tried to Latinize them. They wanted them to wear the same dress as theirs, and they often insisted that they should eat meat, which was abhorrent to the Indians.

Cutting off all the cultural ties of the converts was considered the best guarantee of the genuineness of their conversions. That is why while they christened the natives, they gave them Portuguese surnames, gave them a dress of European fashion, and forbade the wearing of Indian dress. Also, they taught them western eating habits, made them drink liquor, eat beef. They considered Latin as the sole language of the Church. Even if the natives wanted to use their own language –Konkani - they could do so only in Roman letters and not in Devanagari script. The Viceroy of Goa suppressed the Konkani language in Goa on June 27, 1684.

In those places where the Portuguese did not have direct control, but only their influence, they were more flexible in their approach. For instance, when the fishermen community of the East Coast became Christians they did not interfere with their traditional way of living except that fishing was forbidden on Sundays. However, their flexibility in approach was more out of practical diplomacy rather than a genuine appreciation of Indian culture. This is evident from the attitude they showed towards the ancient Christians of the Malabar Coast. With a basic conviction that the Western form of Christianity was alone perfect they tried to show that the Oriental Christianity was imperfect solely because of its divergence from the Western rites.

It is remarkable to note that, in spite of the general trend of the period, certain western missionaries developed an appreciative response to Indian culture. Fr. Thomas Stephen (1549-1619), an English Jesuit was perhaps the first of such missionaries. He not only quickly learned Konkani, but also mastered it to such an extent that he composed a grammar and a manual of Christian doctrine in Konkani. Besides, he mastered Sanskrit and Marathi, and became a pioneer in the creation of Christian literature in Marathi. His Krista Purana, in the words of K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, "is more than a tour de force. It is a high poetic achievement that opens new vistas on the landscape of the spirit and demonstrates the singular flexibility of the modern evolved Indian languages to meet the impact of new themes and inspirations.

A greater luminary in the field of appreciative adaptation of Indian Culture was an Italian Jesuit, Robert de Nobili (1577-1656). He pointed out to his superiors that the "religious" faith should not be confused with "civil" customs. To be Christian does not imply to eat beef, to drink wine, to wear sandals made of leather, and as such become outcasts in Indian society. So he decided to live separately. He adopted the saffron dress and wooden clogs; abstained from meat, fish, eggs and wine; ate only vegetarian food; marked his brow with sandal paste and wore the sacred thread across the breast as the Brahmins did.

He also allowed his converts to retain their cultural mode of living such as marking brows with tilakam, growing a tuft of hair (kudumi), having the ceremonial ablutions. His appreciation of the Hindu style of life was so sincere that he took the trouble of learning Sanskrit, the Vedas and the Vedanta from a notable Pandit of Madurai, Sivadarma. Later, he wrote many treatises on the Christian faith in the Indian philosophical moulds and terms. He even held that there was no sacredness about the Christian names of the western terminology. He translated the Christian names and created Tamil versions of those names.

As a member of the Italian nobility, de Nobili declared himself a member of the raja caste (kshatriya). He was determined to penetrate into the ancient Aryanised Tamil culture of Madurai, the proud citadel of Hinduism in South India, not as a Parangi, but as a Brahmin sanyasi. Nobili set to work studying Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit, India's cultural languages. Only then was he able to steep himself in the ancient wisdom of the land and to begin explaining, perhaps reformulating, Christianity in terms and thought-patterns more in accordance with the genius of the country.

From the very beginning de Nobili's work met with stiff opposition, both from the Hindus of Madurai and even more so, from the missionaries and many ecclesiastical authorities. But he was supported by his own religious superiors (Jesuits in Rome) and his bishop (Roz of Cranganore). Finally, Pope Gregory XV gave his approval to the movement, So it flourished and brought to Christianity thousands of high caste as well as low caste Hindus. The movement was later led by such great Tamil scholars as Constant Beschi, James de Rossi and others.

But the Church in India was not prepared to accept such bold steps. Most of the missionaries - a few enlightened Jesuits and one or two others were exceptions - were short-sighted and narrow-minded and so the movement was doomed to fail. In the 18th century the opposition hardened. Pressure was brought to bear on the Holy See and its representative to suppress the movement. Step by step Rome succumbed to the pressure, and from time to time the Popes or their representatives issued decrees against the various practices de Nobili had introduced. The death blow was administered by Pope Benedict XIV in 1744 by the bull, Omnium Solicitudinum.

Propaganda Jurisdiction

It was on 6 January 1622 that Pope Gregory XV inaugurated the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. It represented in part, one of the last of the series of the follow-up actions of the reform programs of the council of Trent. But more than that, it was the fruit of the realization that the state of missions so far almost completely left under the control of the colonial powers, was not all that satisfactory, though it would be unjust to forget the magnificent work that had been accomplished by the toil and sacrifices of innumerable Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. But the Holy See felt that some urgent reform was needed.

Msgr. Ingoli, the first secretary of the newly established Propaganda Congregation, made three strong critical reports in 1625, 1628 and 1644 on the state of missions and listed no fewer than twelve causes of disorder and abuse. The partition of missionary zones between Spain and Portugal led to some bitter rivalry. Wherever the two nations met, as for example in East Asia, there was open hostility between the Spanish Patronato and the Portuguese Padroado. The missions were also tied to the government of kings who claimed rights and privileges that encroached upon the spiritual domain. Spanish and Portuguese missionaries were often regarded by the local people as mere agents of white penetration rather than as harbingers of Christ, so much so that in India conversion was described as "turning Parangi".

One of the steps the Propaganda envisaged to advance the cause of the missions independent of the colonial patronage was to promote indigenous vocations. The clergy who worked under the Padroado, even with the de Nobili Movement, were mostly foreigners. In the early decades recruitment of local vocations was not very much encouraged.

Not only were Indians to be promoted to priesthood but ecclesiastical power and responsibility were to be vested in them. The appointment of Indian vicars apostolic was the first step towards that end. So when Propaganda thought of starting an ecclesiastical unit under its full control in India, namely, the vicariate of Idalcan or Bijapur outside the Goan jurisdiction, the Congregation chose Matteo de Castro, a Brahmin Christian of Goa. This first attempt ended in disaster mainly because of opposition from the Padroado archbishop/ priests of Goa.

The relations between Padroado and the Propaganda became tense during the Matteo de Castro episode and continued to be so for a long time. In 1642 the Portuguese king forbade the entry of non-Portuguese missionaries and, in fact, in 1649 Father Ephrem O.F.M. Cap. was subjected to trial of the inquisition for having exercised apostolate in Madras, independently of Goa. In 1652 the Portuguese cortes (the general assembly) banned the acceptance of papal documents unless these were officially recognized by the realm. This meant in practice that papal letters appointing vicars apostolic were not be acknowledged. In 1672 by another order of the cortes all the missionaries and bishops who had not passed through Lisbon were banned. Later on, a vow of fidelity to the royal patron was demanded from all missionaries.

In spite of all these, the newly created vicariate of Idalcan continued to exist and even extended its jurisdiction to Golconda and the Great Mughal. Already in 1716 negotiations between Rome and London had begun with a view to transferring the jurisdiction over Bombay churches from the archbishop of Goa to the vicar apostolic.

The final decision was made in May 1720. The Portuguese priests were expelled from the city by the British governor, Charles Boone, and the existing four churches of Bombay were entrusted to the vicar apostolic and the five Carmelite missionaries who arrived soon after on the scene. The Goan priests were allowed to remain, but they had to come under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic. This change-over was not in keeping with the hierarchical conception of the Padroado and was accepted neither by the archbishop nor by the king.

A good number of the laity and even the priests were unable to reconcile themselves to this breaking off of contacts with the Padroado. This was one of the basic causes of some of the difficulties and conflicts, which have been plaguing the vicariate of Bombay from time to time, subsequently. At the end of the 18th century, a sort of "double jurisdiction" came into force in Bombay. The solution pleased no one, and did not remove the cause of unholy rivalries; on the contrary, it helped the laity to get more involved in the controversy. Similar conflicts occurred also in the Canara vicariate (1674 onwards).

The Padroado-Rome relations, were at a low ebb in the 19th century under Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX, when Portugal was dominated by a secular and liberal regime. The Padroado interpreted the actions of these pontiffs as being instigated by the Propaganda partisans in India and the Propaganda Congregation in Rome. The Goan clergy and people rose to oppose these moves by Rome. Similar rebellions occurred in other dioceses, like Cochin and Mylapore under the Padroado. The rebellion is known, rightly or wrongly as the "Goan/Padroado schism". Pius IX by the brief Probe Nostis of 1853 condemned the schism. Though these disputes were subsequently settled through negotiations between the Holy See and Portugal, their repercussions continued to plague the Church in India in certain areas, particularly in Bombay, till the middle of this century. Many in this metropolitan city had to suffer the consequences of these acrimonious quarrels between the subjects of Padroado and those of Propaganda.

The report of the visitation made by Bishops Bonnard and Carbonneaux in 1858-60 on Propaganda's efforts is very revealing, though sad. It said: "In the extensive vicariates of Vishakapatnam, Hyderabad, Dacca, Calcutta, Patna and Agra there was not a single Indian priest.

The far-sighted Pope Leo XIII laid the foundations for an Indian Church when he constituted an Indian hierarchy through the promulgation of the Bull Humanae Salutis on October 1, 1886. As a result of this Papal Decree, six units were created as Archdioceses (Agra, Bombay, Calcutta Madras, Pondicherry and Verapoly), 10 units were created dioceses (Allahabad, Cochin, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Krishnagar, Mysore, Pune, Quilon, Tiruchirapalli and Vishakapatnam), and Patna continued to function as a Vicariate. Thus, when the Hierarchy was constituted in 1886 there were 17 ecclesiastical units under Propaganda and two units-the Archdiocese Goa and the diocese of Mylapore-under Padroado.

The establishment in 1894 of a national seminary (the papal seminary) at Kandy (in the 1950's it was transferred to Pune) by the same pontiff was an important step towards indigenization of the Indian hierarchy. But, apart from the appointment of a few Goan Brahmins as vicars apostolic in the 17th century, the first Indian to be made head of a Latin Rite diocese was Bishop Tiburtius Roche S. J., of Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu in 1923. Since then more and more Indians began to be appointed; so too superiors of religious orders. The starting of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India in 1944 and the celebration of the national synod in 1950 were milestones in the process of indigenization. But what really quickened the process was the action of the Indian Government imposing restrictions on the entry of foreign missionaries. The indigenous vocations increased by leaps and bounds, and transfer of power to Indian hands was almost complete within the space of ten to twenty years.

Latin Church

The Latin Church is spread all over the world, and represents all but a little of the Roman Catholic Church's population.

Of the nearly 1.1 billion (110 crore or 1100 million) Roman Catholics, the Latin Church's strength is more than 90 percent or above 1 billion.

The next two largest churches are the Ukrainian Church with a population of about 4.5 million and the Syro-Malabar Church with a strength of nearly 4 million. Both these churches are Oriental (Eastern Rite) in worship and traditions.

Latin Christianity in India

The present Latin Church in India had its origin from the missionary work of the Western missionaries. In 1534, the diocese of Goa was established. St Francis Xavier, Robert De Nobili, and Constant Lievens were a few dominant missionaries. In 1886, the Indian Latin hierarchy was established.

The Christian mission among the Tribals, Dalits, and backward classes of India is one of the main factors for their awakening and the formation of political movements and organizations to fight for their legitimate rights and justice.

Population in India (Approximate figures)

Total Christian population - 28 million

Latin Catholics - 14 million

Latin Catholics in Kerala - 2 million

Dioceses and Archdioceses

Latin : 118 (22 Archdioceses)

The first Latin diocese in Kerala was established in 1330 as the Diocese of Kollam.

In 1534, Diocese of Goa was established.

1558: Diocese of Cochin

1542: Francis Xavier, one of the famous European missionaries, arrived in Goa.

The main centres for Latin Catholics in the 16th century were Kochi, Kannur, and Kozhikkode.

CCBI

The conference of Catholic Bishops of India – Latin Rite (CCBI-LR) is an association of the bishops of Latin Church in India functioning in accordance with c.447 of CIC. It was established on April 22,1988 following the directive of the letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Bishops of India on May 28, 1987.

At first an adhoc committee consisting of President and a Vice-President and a secretary was elected and it was assisted by a small team of four bishops forming the Executive Committee.  At its third Plenary Assembly in Goa (1991) a full team of office-bearers, was elected and an Executive Committee consisting of the office-bearers, all the Metropolitans of Latin ecclesiastical Provinces and the Chairmen of CCBI Commissions/Committee was constituted.  Its statutes were approved by the Holy See on Jan. 13, 1994.

By forms and means of apostolate suited to the circumstances of time and place, the conference is to promote, in accordance with the law, the greater good which the Church offers to all people.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Indian was registered under the Societies Registrations Act of 1860. Regd.No.S/19920 of May 1, 1989.

Office-bearers

President:

Most Rev. Henry D’Souza, Archbishop of Calcutta,

Arch-bishop’s House, 32,

Park Street, Calcutta,

West Bengal-700 016.

Vice-President:

Most Rev. Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi,

Archbishop’s House, P.Box.5,

Purulia Rd., Ranchi, Bihar-834 001.

Secretary-General:

Most Rev.Thomas Dbre, Bishop of Vasai,

Bishop’s House, St. Augustine Nagar,

Barampur, Bhabolbe, Vasai Rd.,

Thane Dt., Maharashtra-401 202.

Deputy Secretary-General:

Fr. S.Arulsamy, CCBI Secretariat,

Divya Deepti Sadan, 9-10,

Bhai Vir Singh Mar, New Delhi-110 001.

Ph: 011-3364222. Fax:011-3364343.

E-mail: ccbi@satyam.net.in