How do I address the pope?

Evito · Post by **Evito** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 1:49 pm

Papae Benedicto XVI salutem?

I'm not sure. Who is?

Parthenophilus · Post by **Parthenophilus** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 3:10 pm

Mein heiliger Führer

Episcopus · Post by **Episcopus** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 3:33 pm

haha

Io Papa?

Evito · Post by **Evito** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:44 pm

guuuuuys
seriously!

I am gonna write him a serious letter, and I thought I might as well do it in Latin since my Latin is better than my German.

amans · Post by **amans** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:22 pm

In a letter to the pope Apollinaris Sidonius, a fifth century Gallo-Roman aristocrat, high government official, poet, and bishop of Clermont, writes by way of greeting (salutatio):

Sidonius domino papae Perpetuo salutem

You just need to change "Sidonius" for "Evitus"

You could, of course, change the word order to emphasize various parts of the phrase or you could add another adjective or a "suo" if you feel like it. Or you could throw in a Benedictus XVI for good measure...

However, I don't think you have to be overly reverential. John Paul II was greeted on his many travels by simple words like "Hello and welcome to ..."

Episcopus · Post by **Episcopus** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:18 pm

Your efforts are in vain. The letter will not be read by the Pope. Believe me we have all been there.

edonnelly · Post by **edonnelly** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:39 pm

Episcopus wrote:Your efforts are in vain. The letter will not be read by the Pope. Believe me we have all been there.

I would not be so sure. I'll bet the same advice was give to Clarence Earl Gideon (for you non-Americans, his hand-written letter to our Supreme Court resulted in massive changes to our legal system).

Will the Pope read every letter sent to him? I'm sure not. But I bet he will read some, perhaps just a tiny percentage. I think you should be encouraged, though, that one of the first things the Vatican did after the announcement of the new Pope was establish an email address for him and a link to that address on their website (see Benedict XVI under the picture).

amans · Post by **amans** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:17 pm

I agree with edonnelly. The pope himself will not read all incoming mail, but if the institution, the papacy, does not handle all serious queries, it would be, IMHO, rather unprofessional.

I am somewhat surprised though that there does not seem to be a Latin version of the Vatican web site. Am I mistaken or does it only have modern language versions?

Misopogon · Post by **Misopogon** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:49 pm

Episcopus wrote:Your efforts are in vain. The letter will not be read by the Pope. Believe me we have all been there.

Not always true. I think that all the letters are read and most of them receive an answer, even the Pope will not read everything. A relative of mine had a burocratic problem with his priest, that refused to marry him. Well, he wrote directly to the Pope and received an answer. Also the priest receive a letter and suddenly the burocratic problem disappeared. The priest was not very happy at all but he couldn't do anything about... (to be fair, the relative of mine wasn't very correct, he should have written/talked to his bishop first. You know Episcopus, the bishop comes always first

)