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

Sir: The Pope and the central teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church act increasingly out of a fantasy world. The Pope has announced, again, that there cannot be woman priests and 'this judgement is to be held by all the Church's faithful'. Just how does he propose that this happens?

I and many other Roman Catholic women have spent years, if not decades, painfully discerning the meaning of our call to ordained ministry. We are supported in the belief in our calling by many women and men, including priests. Neither I, nor they, are going to abandon this truth which has come to us through our personal and collective experiences of God. This experience is neither respected nor listened to by those who purport to teach 'our faith' - that's why they keep getting things so wrong both in this matter and so many others.

The language of compulsion used in Vatican statements is ludicrous in an era of mature Christians who are no longer prepared to have beliefs imposed on them.

Yours sincerely,

JACKIE HAWKINS

Ruislip Manor, Middlesex

31 May