I?cannot overemphasise my distress on discovering that the bishops have decided not to accept Pope Francis’ offer to consider ordaining married men, should it seem to be pastorally helpful (“Bishops reject married priesthood and General Absolution”, News from Britain and Ireland, 2 January). For a long time I have been looking at my contemporaries, priests like myself in our later seventies and older, admiring their determination to soldier on in their parishes, fearing that, should they retire, they would place intolerable burdens on younger priests. There is great anxiety that because of the priest shortage, some areas will be deprived of the celebration of Mass. Priests hurry from one church to another and we fail to make human contact with our parishioners. It is the