There are almost as many disabled people globally as there are Catholics. According to the World Disability Report, they number just over 1 billion. But, although 15 per cent of humanity lives with diverse disabilities, survey the ranks of the international Catholic hierarchy and that number falls below 2 per cent. Indeed, in the English-speaking world, I have been unable thus far to find a single bishop of any denomination who was publicly disabled by anything other than sight at the time of their consecration. “The shepherds of the flock,” says the lawyer and entrepreneur John Willis – himself born without limbs – “are to my eyes scandalously and shockingly uniform when compared to their sheep.”