As a priest who left active ministry to marry, I was somewhat taken aback when Cardinal Hume began to ordain former Anglican priests who had left their church mainly because of the decision to ordain women.
Consequently, I wrote to the Cardinal to ask if I decided to become an Anglican priest, could I, after a respectable passage of time, return to active ministry as a Catholic with my wife and family?
Cardinal Hume kindly replied to say that he was sympathetic, but that the situations were different. Maybe, but the contradiction remains consistent.
Paul Salter, Ellesmere, Shropshire