Church reform

* Regarding the Notable and Quotable (NCR, Sept. 15): "We have 2,000 years of church history, with so many sufferings, including many failures.... The church has revived after so many crises with a new youth, with new freshness." What is Pope Benedict telling us? That Vatican IT was just one among many failures? That the council did not, after all, engender a new youth and freshness? That the flowering of liturgy and ecclesiology following the council, beaten down by the "traditionalists" (medievalists) like Ratzinger and his ilk, was just one of those sufferings we must all endure? When will the hierarchy come to realize that true reform does not come from the top down, but from the bottom up? Bottoms up!

RICHARD WARREN

Springfield, Ore.

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