Madam, - I was puzzled to read Paddy Agnew's report on the Roman Catholic Church's call to Muslims to respect "the equal dignity of man and woman" ("Vatican warns Catholics on marriage to a Muslim man", The Irish Times, May 15th).
Is this the same Roman Catholic Church that reserves its priesthood for men? Should we expect an imminent change in policy? I look forward to the Vatican following its own advice and the lead of some of its sister churches. Or are the men in black clearing their glasshouses of stones? - Yours, etc.,
Dr FERGUS RYAN, Department of Legal Studies, Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street, Dublin 2.
Madam, - The Vatican hopes that the followers of Islam will grow in their awareness of the equal dignity of man and woman.
One can only wonder anew at the size of the plank in the Vatican's collective eye.
The present sexist structures and rules of the Roman Catholic Church, which bar women from all the ordained ministries, as well as the exclusively male government of the Holy See do not make the Vatican a shining beacon of the equal dignity of man and woman.
Discrimination against women is unjust, whether it is in the name of God, Jesus, Allah or Muhammad. - Yours, etc.,
SOLINE VATINEL, Avoca Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.