Sir, – I wholeheartedly agree with Maria O’Donovan that it’s time to allow female priests within the Catholic Church (Letters, June 15th).
Recently, there was no parish priest available to say the Saturday evening mass at our local church. A group of helpers took charge and said the readings and gospel themselves so that the mass wouldn’t be cancelled altogether.
It would appear that the Catholic Church would rather see the priesthood fade out entirely than to let women join, a viewpoint rather at odds with Pope Francis’s 2019 statement that women have “legitimate claims” to seek more justice and equality in the Catholic Church.
For the record, it was a woman who read the gospel that Saturday evening and the church did not burst into flames.
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– Yours, etc,
FIONA DALY,
Clontarf, Dublin 3