John Byron Kuhner writes about our beloved and inimitable Latinist, Reginald Foster:
Foster’s Latin abilities turned out to be truly extraordinary. Fr. Salvi wrote to me: “He was at the Vatican for forty years. In that time he developed a reputation for being one of the greatest masters of the Latin language since the Renaissance.” He was a master of both types of tasks assigned the pope’s Latin secretaries: free composition and faithful translation. The papal correspondence is mostly freely composed, in a particular style known as the Curial style. Highly formulaic and traditional, it is laden with scriptural metaphors and classical flourishes. “He had such an incredible command of the language that he could work quickly and flawlessly,” says Monsignor Daniel Gallagher, who worked in the Latin office of the Vatican after Foster. “Whenever there was an urgent document that needed to be composed within minutes, everyone would turn to him.” Foster drafted acceptance speeches for three popes, each with an immediate deadline. The other part of the work consisted of official papal pronouncements, such as encyclicals. These are accepted as authoritative and translations into Latin must be extremely faithful and precise. “That’s the hard part,” Foster concedes. “Paul VI’s writing was very concrete, and avoided jargon. John Paul II—not so much. So how are we going to say ‘the economic consequences of globalization’ in Latin? That stuff doesn’t mean anything in Latin. You need to think.”
It’s also worth revisiting Anthony Grafton’s 2015 write-up of Reginald’s influence in The Nation.