28-12-2011    "Who done it?
John Wotherspoon

Last Monday night at Hong Kong airport as I was waiting for my flight to Brisbane,
I re-read Paul Collins' article on the history of the new translation

Paul's article and other similar reports - like the recent one by Richard McBrien in the USA
and a previous one by Tom Elich in Australia - read like a "who-done-it?" novel or a game of Cluedo

The villain is not "the butler in the library with a bread knife" 
but "the pope in the Vatican with the Curia"

Yet most Catholics, even most priests, in their loyalty/simplicity/trustfulness
....and maybe through lack of opportunity/interest to know what's going on
......are still not aware of the big picture

Most are thinking "I may not like the new translation, but I can live with it.....the pendulum will swing back"
- not realising the pendulum is broken....it has crashed at one extreme...make that has been hijacked

Some who do realise what's going on are not speaking out,
for fear of losing their job/promotion....not wanting to rock the boat

And some who realise what's going on
are happy to see the juggernaut continue.
They want a speedy return to life before Vatican 2

The "elders" among this second "some" didn't like V2 when it was announced.
They didn't like it when it was on.
They didn't like its conclusions

A younger brigade among the second "some"
have been infected with an anti-V2 virus by the above elders.
The hostility of this young group to V2 is a tremendous cross for those older Catholics
who with loyalty/simplicity/trustfulness accepted Vatican 2 as the voice of the Holy Spirit

The question now is not "who-done-it?"
but "who will fix it?"

Only God can put Humpty together again,
as He has done many times over the past 2,000 years

Our job is to pray for this re-formating, speak up for it, work for it
- for love of the Church
- for love of a sick world that urgently needs a healthy church
- for love of God who wants the church to reach out to all nations