Letter: Pope's stand against women priests is not infallible

Sir: The impression given by your report ('Papal blast widens split over women priests) of the most recent papal statement on the ordination of women is that it is almost infallible. Just as one is or is not pregnant - there is no intermediate state - so too with infallibility; a statement either is or is not infallible. If it is not infallible, then it is fallible, and will stand or fall by the cogency of its arguments. This debate will not be resolved by reducing it to the level of who can shout the loudest (or speak the most authoritatively).

Yours faithfully,

MICHAEL O'DOWD

Eccleston, Lancashire

31 May