What has happened?  One does begin to wonder.  This silence is really shaking my confidence.

Could it be that Christmas is a busy time for printing and that no available machines could be found to re-run such a large number of books, which have a lot of intricate work before and after printing (tabs, properly bound covers, detailed cover art, ribbons, etc)?  As for the tabs, apparently that was a debacle just in itself: putting tabs on a large book like a Missal is a long and onerous task, and one that was not apparently undertaken during the printing process.  Who gets to do them?  Has it been done?  Is there any point in doing it with these defective Missals?

Could it be that printing presses and printing plants normally shut down from mid December until mid-late January?  No doubt the chosen printers had other jobs in the queue; perhaps no time could be found to run our Missal job again before Christmas?

If (let’s say) January 20 is the restart date, and with a normal printing lead-time of 4-6 weeks, could it be that we’re looking at not actually receiving the new Missal into parishes until March next year, which is after the start of Lent?  With such a large order, the printing lead-time could actually be more like 10-12 weeks.  This means we may miss out for an Easter 2012 introduction.

What a debacle this is!

But do you know what?  That’s the good news!

Because, to be honest with you, I strongly fear that after this mess-up (and it is fast becoming one of embarassingly amateurish proportions) and large financial waste, we may not actually end up receiving a Missal at all.

Could it be that we will be subjected to another 30 years of crappy, unapproved, local booklety thingies, similar to those which we have had for the last 40 years?

You know, those sad little plastic-covered spiral-bound pamphlet-style unapproved prayer aids, which are apparently ‘worthy’ for praying the greatest Prayer on earth.

My estimation is that close to 1000 Missals were ordered. Yes, that’s 1000; to cover all the cathedrals, parishes, chapels, schools, chaplaincies, religious houses, chanceries, personal purchases, and backups for the next 20 years.  Now, assuming the Bishops placed a small markup on the Missal itself, in order to make a little money in this whole doomed enterprise, we could say that each Missal and Companion cost around $200.  The purchase cost for parishes was, from what I’ve been told, $235 for both.

If it cost $200 for 1000 Missals, that’s a total expenditure of approximately $200,000.  Yes, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, that’s $200,000!

Who will carry the cost for this mess-up I wonder?

Would any printing firm in NZ just accept pouring approximately $200,000 down the drain?  I doubt it.

Could it be that there is a legal fight in the wings, and that’s why we haven’t heard anything?  And if there is legal fight, that really could mean that the Bishops could have poured $200,000 down the drain.

Your good money my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.  Our money, which we put into the plate each week, could have been poured down the drain on this one.  Now, for those who know about Catholic schooling in this country, $200,000 down the drain is peanuts compared with the millions which have been wasted on Catholic schools.

So that’s why I’m speculating that we may not actually get new Missals after this debacle.  The Bishops’ Conference may not actually have another $200,000 to fork out, and we may end up reverting to a far cheaper plastic cooking-book option.  Who knows. 

There is another question here.  Why is it that we haven’t done what the other smaller English-speaking nations have done and gone in with them?  England, Wales, Scotland and Australia have all gone with the same Missal and printed together.  They all have theirs now and are praying the Mass with it.

If we had done that, we could have printed a smaller, cheaper Maori Missal for those who truly wanted it.  It could have been printed in a more considered time-frame for use next year.

Could it be that when our bishops visit Rome for their ad limina in December, a few questions will be asked around this problem?  Bishop Campbell himself will no doubt be called to account for his public rejection of the new translation.

It’s rather depressing, really, because as I read around the internet today, I am witnessing a lot of joy and happiness with the introduction of the new Missal in other English speaking countries, and yet, once again, we in New Zealand are left looking like complete plonkers.

O tempora!  O mores!