Clifford Longley (“A paradigm shift for English Catholicism”, 14 February) has initiated an important conversation. In any good conversation, we listen and learn from each other. Here, then, are a few initial thoughts in response to his proposal for a “re-boot” of the fundamental mission and purpose of the Church in England and Wales. Having convincingly sketched out what he calls the first and second raison d’être provided by leaders of the Church, beginning with Cardinal Wiseman and the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850, Longley writes that a shift to the “third paradigm” occurred after Vatican II, “based on the assumption that the Council had opened the way to the reunification of Christianity”. This project stalled, Longley says, when the Church of England voted to ordain women in 1992.

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