Bishop Thomas McMahon (Letters, 10 October) recommends a church council to decide on the ordination of women to the diaconate and the ordination of married men. The two issues are not of the same order. Celibacy is a matter of church discipline and could fairly readily be abolished. Personally, I believe that the (non) ordination of women is also a matter of discipline, but many in the Church are not of the same opinion. A decision by the papacy to permit ordination of women would, I suspect, almost certainly lead to a schism in Catholicism, as has occurred in the Anglican Communion, not to mention a sharp deterioration in relations with the Orthodox. No pope could countenance such an outcome.

How then to proceed? It seems to me that the advancement of women to significant positions in the Church, to such an extent that it becomes commonplace and no longer a matter for comment, will lead eventually, and inevitably, to women priests, though no doubt a council should be called before the final step is taken. This is an extremely slow process, but it takes time to break with a two-thousand-year tradition while still retaining the loyalty of all the Church’s members. This process, it seems to me, is one upon which Pope Francis has already embarked.