Sir, In his letter of December 28th, Sean MacReamoinn, responding to Anne Thurston's article, has, I think, touched on at least part of the kernel, when he says that all class systems are open to corruption. No doubt clericalism must be included. Corruption brings with it injustice, and "justice deferred is injustice condoned". A stark fact, but beautiful for its truth.
Add to MacReamoinn's letter the very clear and succinct letter of Rev Noel Barber, S.J., Editor of Studies, in the Tablet December 23rd/30th, in which he states "If one asserts that it is the will of God that women be excluded from orders and so from governance in the Church, one is equivalently saying that it is God's will that women be subject to men in the Church". There is, for me at least, a real sense of joy that the debate continues, in the interests of justice and truth, and continues not just among those of us who have no voice. Put at its simplest, if the authority Church will tell women, on the one hand, "Of course we recognise you (women) as fully human and fully spiritual and, on the other Do not dare to break the Bread, or anoint the Sick and Dying", then it is being neither logical nor just.
Having just read James Relston's Galileo, A Life, I am fascinated by the intrigue, politicking, wheeling and dealing within, without, around, about and through the Vatican at that time. For sticking to the truth then, Galileo died under house arrest, old and broken, in 1642 and in 1992 the Vatican, with what can, I think, be fairly described as a degree of quiet, admitted to "errors". Indeed, how this statement was actually made makes riveting reading in itself for example, when the man in charge, Cardinal Poupard of France, was asked if the statement was an apology, he answered no, merely a "formal recognition of error". A delicate distinction no doubt, and to say the least, tardy justice for poor old Galileo.
Yet even an admission of error some 350 years down the road would seem to be an admission to being human. A start, perhaps? And yet, one doesn't have to be too scholarly to draw parallells. Justice deferred is still injustice condoned, and when it is perpetrated in the name of the founder of Christianity, then many Christians and not only Christians men and women, clerical and lay, find it unacceptable, which is hardly surprising. Yours, etc., Vernon Grove, Rathgar, Dublin 6.