Meet the greatest living Latinist, Fr. Reginald Foster, O.C.D. A native of the lovely shrine of Holy Hill in Wisconsin, he's one of the minutanti of the Pope's Secretaria Status. He spends his days translating things into Latin for the Popes and teaching others the rich beauty of Latin.Holy Hill is worth a visit. It's a wondrous Carmelite shrine on a hill in the woods and crop land near Milwaukee (you can even smell the hops as you drive through the brewing centre!). I once made a pilgrimage there with friends in about 1999. We prayed there for Reggie and his ministry. Please pray for his health. Born in 1939, he's been working in the Vatican for 40 years!
5 comments:
Quite a distinguished career and accomplishments in his life. His scholarship is to be admired. And hopefully there will be a new generation of Latinists.
On a negative side, I do know that Fr. Reggie is against the Tridentine Latin Mass. And where's his Carmelite habit?
Holy Hill is run by the Carmelites of the Original Observance (O.Carm.). They're alot more lax that the OCD Carmelites....but I suppose that priests of Fr. Reggie's age in most Orders are that way....the generation of Vatican II supporters caught up in discarding habits, disipline , tradition, etc.
But I applaud this good priest's scholarship and immense knowledge. Hopefully he's not the last in office.
Yes, as many pictures as I have seen of him, he looks the way he does in this picture. Maybe even his attachment to Latin is a form of rebellion. Having seen a number of Carmelites, I would say that they appear to have pretty much lost their way. As have almost all, if not all, of the historic orders. One Carmelite in a New York community said not long ago, shouldn't we spend our evenings doing something other that watching TV?
His problem is booze.
I honestly don't know why this priest is against the very thing that would possibly give his career as a Latinist, a meaningful existence.
Since Vatican II, I'd say that booze (and alot worse) is a problem for alot of priests.
I'm not implying Fr. Reggie----just priests in general.
Idle time, no prayer life, indisipline, a "Mass" with no real spiritual value or attraction at all (unless you're a Lutheran etc.)
And we wonder why there;s a crisis in the Church and priesthood. Duh!
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