I agree that the authors are probably not native to Rome. That said, my guess is most Vatican officials are either literally Italian (recall that John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in a long time) or from a bunch of random countries such that the natural language to work in is that of the country that you’re in (which in this case is basically Italian).
I also agree these arguments aren’t air-tight, and would like to hear from people who know more (e.g. Vatican reporters).
Hmm, Daniel Gallagher, a strong Latinist who’s worked in the Curia, writes:
Latin is still the “official” language of the Roman Catholic Church and the Magisterium, and I have little doubt anything will ever take its place. But it is not the “working” language of the Roman Curia, and likely never will be again. Italian has had that status for some time, though English has practically replaced it over the last two decades. A few Cardinals have mentioned the importance of having had English-speaking electors on hand during the recent conclave, as many members of the College who needed help did not have Italian as a second language.
(h/t Linch Zhang for finding this article)
I think I’m now falling back to “if it wasn’t composed in Italian, I’m confused why the Italian version would show as more AI-generated”.
From the same piece, this paragraph makes it sound like Italian is the working language of encyclicals (albeit not definitively). Bolding mine:
Whereas a hundred years ago the Latin version was produced first and then the vernaculars were rendered as translations of it, now the Latin version is the last to be completed and is essentially a fine-tuned and carefully raked Latin translation of the Italian.
I agree that the authors are probably not native to Rome. That said, my guess is most Vatican officials are either literally Italian (recall that John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in a long time) or from a bunch of random countries such that the natural language to work in is that of the country that you’re in (which in this case is basically Italian).
I also agree these arguments aren’t air-tight, and would like to hear from people who know more (e.g. Vatican reporters).
ChatGPT5.5 estimates 50% Italian-first, 35% English-first, as prior.
Academia often has people “from a bunch of random countries” and often defaults to English.
Hmm, Daniel Gallagher, a strong Latinist who’s worked in the Curia, writes:
(h/t Linch Zhang for finding this article)
I think I’m now falling back to “if it wasn’t composed in Italian, I’m confused why the Italian version would show as more AI-generated”.
From the same piece, this paragraph makes it sound like Italian is the working language of encyclicals (albeit not definitively). Bolding mine: