Letter: False voice for God's people

Sir: With reference to the Catholic Media Office's comment ('Quiet revolution as women celebrate first communions', 14 March) on women's ordination, that 'there is no sign of the Catholic church moving in that direction', the Catholic Media Office speaks only for the institutional church (ie, the ordained members). It cannot speak for anyone else because there are no properly instituted channels for the rest of the people of God to express their views. The hierarchy and its mouthpiece, the media office, are working out of a model of church which was properly corrected and displaced by the Second Vatican Council.

The council restated the church as being made up of all the baptised as 'the People of God', not simply the ordained or the hierarchy. Baptised members pressing for the ordination of women constitute the 'sign of the Catholic church moving in that direction' that the media office denies exists. These members, women and men, including many priests, are the church just as much as the hierarchy. The media office is in no position to represent our views, because it belongs to a church structure that does not allow for the voice of the 'People of God', only that of the hierarchy.

Sincerely,

JACKIE HAWKINS

Ruislip Manor, Middlesex