I was deeply disturbed by Br Anmol Da Costa’s letter (6 February). In attempting to find a solution to the shortage of priests in the West, he seeks solely to maintain the present male, celibate structure of the priesthood, as if it were something of divine origin. Br Anmol suggests that celibate priests from India and elsewhere might come to the “faithless” nations of the world, presumably including England. I suggest that his energy, and that of Goa’s surplus supply of priests, would be better spent taking the message of Christ to his fellow Indians, fewer than 3 per cent of whom have yet received the Good News. The religion of the majority is Hinduism. Its caste system condemns the Dalits or “untouchables” to a second-class existence. There would see