For many years, the Department of Classics and Archaeology has been teaching Latin to seminarians at the University of Malta. In 1989, Prof. Vella, at the behest of Mgr Vincent Borg, then Dean of the Faculty of Theology, devised a programme of Latin study based on an hour’s instruction per week for a whole year. This programme served several purposes: it whetted the appetite of students for the study of Latin; it offered students access to classical sources in the original language and, most of all, it fulfilled Canon Law 249 which states: Institutionis sacerdotalis Ratione provideatur ut alumni non tantum accurate linguam patriam edoceantur, sed etiam linguam latinam bene calleant necnon congruam habeant cognitionem alienarum linguarum, quarum scientia ad eorum formationem aut ad ministerium pastorale exercendum necessaria vel utilis videatur. (The programme of priestly formation is to provide that students not only are carefully taught their native language but also understand Latin well and have a suitable understanding of those foreign languages which seem necessary or useful for their formation or for the exercise of pastoral ministry.)

This university's course provided the seminarians with a very solid foundation should they have wished to continue their academic studies in Rome, where a sound knowledge of Latin is required. As for the seminarians who preferred a pastoral path, the study of Latin allowed them to be able to understand the Liturgy and parish's registers better.

In 2013, this course, without any consultation with Prof. Vella and in defiance of Canon Law, stopped being offered to seminarians at the University of Malta. The Malta Classics Association is dismayed over this decision and hopes that this situation will be rectified in the next academic year.

Maria Giuliana Fenech

Public Relations Officer

The Malta Classics Association