Sir, - Some Church officials are wont to say that the Church has not the authority to ordain women, because Christ has not given it the power to do so. Archbishop Connell is the latest in that line to do so. There is a patronising subtext to those statements that runs somewhat like this: Ladies, we'd love to, but we can't."
Now Christ recommended celibacy for his disciples, but he never obliged it. As a result a tradition of celibate priests and, married priests grew up side by side in the Church until the Lateran Council in 1139, which declared that in future the marriages of priests were invalid in the eyes of God. Had the Church Christ's authority to make that declaration? Was it not in contradiction of Christ's practice, and the practice of the Church for over a thousand years? When it suits, do the officials ignore Christ? When it suits they also ordain married Protestant ministers when they convert to Catholicism and Greek married Uniate priests. - Yours, etc.,
Wellington Lane,
Dublin 6W.