Sir, - The ordination of Mother Frances Meigh to the Catholic priesthood by Bishop Pat Buckley was a momentous event. As a member of a group from Springhill Community House and the Centre for Human Rights who travelled to Omeath to witness the ordination, I was conscious that, regardless of the implications of the ordination for Bishop Buckley, for Mother Meigh and for the debate about women priests, there was enthusiasm, support and charity among both the men and women in attendance. Indeed, if a debate among locals in Omeath prior to the ordination was anything to go by, there is widespread public approval of and support for the ordination of women.
The argument can be supported from a number of bases depending on your point of view. As a Catholic it I feel would do the church no harm to give women the dignity and respect we deserve by admitting us to the priesthood. Owen O'Sullivan in The Silent Chism writes that "if the 19th century was the one in which the church lost the working classes, the 20th century may be the one in which it loses women." I need not remind anyone that the 20th century is drawing to a close and many women are frustrated and reevaluating their position vis-a-vis Catholicism.
As a democrat, I feel it is an affront to equality that women are excluded from the central ministry of the church; and as someone concerned with human rights I feel it is an abuse of human rights to discriminate according to gender as the Catholic Church so clearly does. The church may not have been tried in the European Court of Human Rights, but in the court of public opinion she has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt. - Yours, etc., Anne Monaghan,
Centre for Human Rights,
Springhill Close,
Belfast 12.