It was refreshing to be part of your wonderful International Women’s Day webinar on 8 March on the topic “Do women have a future in the Catholic Church?” Expertly chaired by Liz Dodd, and with 297 Zoom participants, it made clear that many of your readership are very concerned with the future of women.

As we begin to come out of the pandemic, it is evident that many women have paid a high price in caring, loss of income and loss of health. Yet there is still a deafening silence in the Catholic Church about equality, as evidenced by the one token woman, Sr Nathalie Becquart, who will be able to vote at the next synod.

Joanna Moorhead commented wisely on the webinar that we have the span of a generation to achieve equality in the Church. Our daughters may be hanging on, but in a generation, women will have walked away, losing the many gifts of the Catholic faith, but refusing to put up with the glaring inequalities.