The situation on Lanzarote, “a eucharistic desert” because of its scarcity of priests (Letters, 29 March), surprises visitors only because it is novel. New churches, for instance in Africa, have known only that situation from the start – which does not make the situation less alarming. And yet the Second Vatican Council did restate the centrality of Eucharist in Christian life. What is the Church willing to do to address the problem? In our large-to-huge parishes (Serenje parish, for instance, covers an area equal to three-quarters the size of Belgium – we were two priests and used to visit 90 centres) it is now all too frequent for a prayer centre not to have been visited by a priest for years – and the results are those your letter writer, Christopher David