I have heard that Pope John Paul II could speak many different languages and that Esperanto was one of them.
2007-04-02 03:00:54 · 8 answers · asked by Dorcas 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Should read "Pope John Paul II ..." sorry.
2007-04-02 03:25:59 · update #1
Yeah, he would be. He had an amazing facility with languages.
VLR
2007-04-04 04:17:42 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't know if Pope John Paul II could fluently speak Esperanto, but here's his Christmas Address from 2004 in Esperanto. The page contains a link where you can hear it in his voice.
http://www.ikue.org/kristnasko2004/kristnasko2004.htm
2007-04-02 20:59:26 · answer #2 · answered by rbwtexan 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't know if he spoke much Esperanto. It doesn't take very long to learn the rules in any case, so if you know lots of European languages, you can pick up Esperanto in a remarkably short amount of time.
What is interesting is that one of the languages in which he sent his Easter message was Esperanto, so he clearly had some sympathy for it.
2007-04-02 16:50:18 · answer #3 · answered by garik 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, but being able to say "Merry Christmas" in Esperanto, like the Pope does along with about 75 other languages, does not really make someone Esperanto-speaking.
With love in Christ.
2007-04-03 11:59:34 · answer #4 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
As stated, He sent many holiday messages in Esperanto. So to say he didn't know it is kind of off the mark I'd say.
Also, Vatican Radio broadcasts regularly include a segment in Esperanto. http://www.radiovaticana.org/esp/index.asp Here is the link. 93.3 FM and 105 FM on the European channels. Not every day, but usually Wednesday, and Thursday, some holidays.
Äis!
2007-04-02 17:30:59 · answer #5 · answered by Jagg 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Pope John Paul II
learned as many as eighteen languages during his lifetime, including Latin, Ukrainian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, English, Chinese, Japanese, Croatian, Arabic, Persian, Romanian, Turkish, Korean and of course his native Polish. He also had some facility with Russian.
He could speak eight of these languages fluently, but no Esperanto.
2007-04-02 13:31:15 · answer #6 · answered by Martha P 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Pope John Paul II didn't speak Esperanto. He spoke many other languages but not Esperanto. I don't know where you heard that.
2007-04-02 10:09:35 · answer #7 · answered by meisawesome 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I don't know if he spoke Esperanto but he was Polish by birth.
2007-04-04 13:49:08 · answer #8 · answered by jasgallo 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋