Sir, – With her "empire of misogyny" remarks, I suspect Mary McAleese may have fallen in with the common assumption that there is no essential difference between Catholicism and Protestantism ("McAleese says ban on women priests is 'codology dressed up as theology'", News, March 8th). After half a century of the "spirit of Vatican II", it's an easy enough mistake to make. – Yours, etc,
DAVID SMITH,
Artane,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – The male Catholic Church leaders continue to ignore protests from women and in the process lose many women who just give up.
I don’t understand how they can be so intransigent, and stubborn, to persist with this glaring inequality and disrespect for half of their congregation.
Their policy is based on very questionable and archaic principles, but who am I to tell them that.
It’s time the church woke up. This is unjust and unfair. How can any good and fair-minded leader allow it to continue?
My best wishes to Mary McAleese. We are all behind her in her efforts to end this most obvious inequality for women. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA DEEGAN,
Dublin 3.
A chara, – Mary McAleese states that we in the Catholic Church do not have women role models.
I beg to differ. We have the ultimate role model in Mary, the Mother of God, who achieved the highest rank of all humans in heaven, raised above all men and other women. What more could one want?
Of course what Mary McAleese really wants is a role model to fit in with her way of thinking, which is in opposition to church teaching.
I, as a Catholic woman who returned to the church of her youth by my own choice, deeply resent the fact that Mary McAleese wishes to change the church so beloved of countless men and women, simply because she disagrees with its teachings. I call upon strong Catholic women all over the world to stand up to that “codology” . – Is mise,
DEIRDRE NIC ÉANRUIG,
Glasnaíon,
Baile Átha Cliath 9.