Os padres e a língua da igreja o ensino-aprendizagem de língua latina em seminários católicos em Alagoas

Abstract

This work aims to describe and analyze the space of the Latin language in the initial formation of priests in seminaries in Alagoas-Brazil in contemporary times, especially focusing on how the teaching-learning process and the contact with Latin language has been given. For this discussion, a socio-historical and pedagogical context is presented that covers the relationship between Latin, Catholicism, the Roman Empire and especially the History of Brazil and highlights the presence / absence of this language as a curricular component, particularly in the formative stage of Catholic priests from Alagoas (propaedeutic, philosophy, theology, internship, deaconate and presbyterate). The corpus of the research was constituted from the answers obtained via an online questionnaire entitled O Latim nos Seminários de Alagoas (GONÇALVES; SANTOS, 2022), produced on the Google Forms platform, directed to seminarians in all formative stages and to priests who maintained a bond active with formation houses in the state of Alagoas. The methodological procedures that support this research are qualitative and quantitative in nature, exploratory in nature and the collected data are analyzed under the descriptive-analytical bias. The description of the data and the analysis of the content and discourse of the responding subjects contribute to understanding the use of Latin in liturgical practices, in teaching in seminars and its implication with the figure of the subject-priest. Through this study, we can see that the teaching-learning of Brazilian Portuguese and foreign languages, both classic and modern, is promoted in Catholic seminaries in Alagoas. It is attested that the Latin language is taken as a sacred language, the language of God or of faith, learned through a traditionalist approach, considering the experiences reported by the subjects, which also highlight the relevance of this language both in the formation and in actions related to the clerical exercise in contemporary Brazil.