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October 17, 2006
The "more" to the story...
...of Fr. Foster, the "Latin Lover." - from Catholic News Service
Though Father Foster's Latin classes at the university had been enormously popular, most students had not been paying for the course, according to the staffers and Father Foster.
The priest said the lack of registered students "is my fault for the simple reason that I told the students if you want to come for Latin, I will teach you ... and of course they're not (registering) and they're not paying."
Typically, school records would show that only three out of 65 students paid and "that's what (the university) didn't like," he said.
Students had been taking advantage of the Milwaukee-born priest's open-door, free-for-all instruction for the past 20 years, he said, and now that he is freed from duties at the university this year, he wants to set up and run his own informal Latin academy. Courses will be gratis, he said.
I'm actually rather interested that CNS picked up the story. It seems to me that even a year ago, this wouldn't have been part of their normal coverage. I think that the role of the Internet - blogs picking up little stories like this, fueled by the broader knowledge of even these kinds of nooks and crannies in the Catholic world - oh, I know about that guy 'cause Zadok and the Whapping People and the Roamin' Roman all blogged about him in the past - as well as the ability of all of us to listen to things like Vatican Radio without a shortwave anymore - might be impacting story choice - just a little. Plus I do know there's a greater interest in All Things Rome since April '05. Tourism is up, and folks are just....interested.
Fr. Z has perspective - and good stories.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Greetings,
He was my latin professor. We had to take latin as a requirement for theology. On the first day of every class he would say that he only wanted people who loved latin and NOT people taking the course for a requirement. If they left that day, he would pass them all. At this time 1/2 the class would get up and leave. They would never come back and all would pass. This could be another reason why they let him go.
However, when I left his class I would LOVE latin, want to read latin, want to speak latin. Then I would get home, open my book and say: I hate latin. Oh, the memories of the early 90s. I love listening to his Latin Lover show.
peace
Posted by: TP at Oct 17, 2006 9:51:04 PM
I dearly miss Reggie's class; thankfully, I'm leading a pilgrimage (leaving tomorrow) to Rome, and hopefully I'll run into him.
His method, style, and approach are inimitable, and although I understand the Gregorian's "reasoning", they will regret their decision in the end.
vivat lingua romanorum!
Posted by: Fr. Andrew G. Bloomfield at Oct 17, 2006 10:59:23 PM
I just blogged about this.
My.
If people really believed in spoken Latin, Fr. Suitbert Seidl (also O.C.D., but based in Florida) might've swept the nation.
Posted by: Michael Tinkler at Oct 17, 2006 11:27:21 PM
Oh - and about Blogs spreading the word, I first read about the phenomenon of Fr. Reggie in the New Yorker, unless it was the Atlantic. He's had great secular press for years.
Posted by: Michael Tinkler at Oct 17, 2006 11:33:50 PM
I can't tell you how many Greek and Latin classes my husband has begged to sit in on over the years (including long before he was my husband), years of poverty-of-funds/richness-of-love-for-learning.
Many times he was turned down because the professors knew that the university would look askance at such practices. This in many Catholic schools, no less, some of which charged audit fees that were equal to the regular course fees!
You would think that the Church which founded the practice of "education for all" would find some way to accomadate and encourage professors and practices which spread the joy of Latin!
Posted by: Corita Stull at Oct 17, 2006 11:48:16 PM
For a variety of complicated reasons, many Catholic (and non-Catholic) educational institutions are under great financial pressure. It's sounds nice to say that we should just provide joy, knowledge, and education for all, but someone's got to pay the bills. Giving it away is a short-term solution--if you want a sustainable institution, you have to charge tuition or raise a huge endowment or both.
Posted by: MG at Oct 18, 2006 8:33:24 AM
Secular and Catholic press article links here:
http://frcoulter.com/latin/foster/index.html
Fr. Reggie has been quite a force for quite some time, Amy.
Posted by: Brigid at Oct 18, 2006 9:55:22 AM
Amy has linked to the Coulter page several times, including in her last post on Foster, Brigid.
The other issue in the CNS coverage is that CNS has not often been in the habit of covering inter-church squabbles like this one.
Posted by: Elsa at Oct 18, 2006 10:26:02 AM
MG is right. I'm all for Latin and I'm all for common sense flexibility, but the ability of so many folks to just assume "other people" should pay the light bill is just stunning.
Posted by: Mike Petrik at Oct 18, 2006 3:21:13 PM
