R SuLtivAN (Letters, Catholic Herald, 21 July) sees the fruits of Vatican II as "dwindling congregations, desperate shortages of priests and nuns, convents closing".
This is a very Eurocentric view. Worldwide congregations are growing, as is the number of vocations. My experience of Asia (Korea, Singapore, the Philippines) is of large, lively congregations, with convents and seminaries springing up all over the place and bursting at the seams. In many places this is a very recent phenomenon. Perhaps the fruit of a Council which opened up the riches of the Faith in a way that is accessible to non-European cultures?
As for understanding Masses in other languages, I had little difficulty even in Korean, as the structure remains the same.
It is possible to follow the English in a missal in much the same way as R Sullivan probably did when the Mass was in Latin.
Anthony Milner W Sussex