In 1962, as a seminarian, and purely for reasons of financial expediency, I worked for eight weeks on a full-time hospital night shift. My main occupation, as a nursing auxiliary, was changing baby nappies. The ward to which I was assigned was full of babies suffering mainly from gastric enteritis and whooping cough.The fact that I must have changed well over 1,000 nappies does not, however, qualify me to advise Pope Francis or anyone else on matters concerning marriage and family life. In spite of this I wholeheartedly agree with Mary McAleese (News from Britain and Ireland, 21 June) that the people with whom the Pope should be surrounding himself at the forthcoming synod are not 150 celibate males but wise men and women who are tried and tested as both spouses and parents. When will we