AK<p>What language does the Conclave speak? - by Barbara Serra (2025-05-08)</p><p><a href="https://barbaraserra.substack.com/p/what-language-does-the-conclave-speak" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">barbaraserra.substack.com/p/wh</span><span class="invisible">at-language-does-the-conclave-speak</span></a><br>———</p><p>>> … The official language of the conclave, and the Vatican in general, is Latin. </p><p>>> But that’s the theory. In reality, Italian is the common language of the <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Vatican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Vatican</span></a>, ... Pope Francis himself was no big fan of the extensive use of <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Latin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Latin</span></a>… changed the official language of the worldwide gathering of Bishops … from Latin to <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Italian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Italian</span></a>, early on in his Papacy more than 10 years ago.</p><p>>> Francis intentionally appointed cardinals to further represent the global south, to give millions of catholics outside the West more of a voice - … that by its very nature may not be as fluent in Italian as a European’s…</p><p>>> The official language during the Congregations of Cardinals … was Italian, ... Certain bilingual cardinals would be in charge of translating … into other languages during the discussions. It would be safe to infer that the same thing happens during the <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/conclave" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conclave</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/LinguaFranca" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LinguaFranca</span></a></p>