Happy helpmates

Joanna Nash (October 26). As a printing the letter from Miss Thank you very much for re
woman in her late Fifties active in the world as well as in the Church, I agree with Miss Nash but definitely not with Fr. Kearney (October 19), having the best of reasons for being convinced that the pushing "women's libbers" are their own worst enemies, as well as being some of the worst enemies of the human race as a whole.
A few more years of them and their protagonists (those men who egg them on, perhaps in the hope of saving their own skins one day) and there will be not nuclear war, economic war or ethnic war, but out-and-out sex war. A crazy idea? Oh no; if one really thinks, pondering one's own experience as a recipient of equal pay for a number of years, one is only too aware of the folly of pressing for equal opportunity into the bargain.
The happiest marriages I know are those in which the wife does, after reasoned discussion, defer to her husband in those matters in which the man traditionally has the prerogative: the unhappiest are those in which the wife insists on getting her own way regardless. So it is outside marriage too. Those women who are content to be the man's helpmate are the happiest — and far and
away the nicest. C. Pellow
26 Butler Close, Woodstock Road, Oxford.
Why do so many women adopt the arrogant "I don't want to be a priest, so you can't" attitude of Joanna Nash? (October 26). If women have to wait for all the Church's problems to be solved before their case can be considered, they will wait until Judgment Day. This attitude of "women last" is not unknown elsewhere, but surely the Church does not have a sliding scale of justice. I was amused to see that Miss Nash, with no sense of absurdity, included "the tragically diminishing number of vocations" in her list of troubles. The media have made a "trendy bandwagon" of the role of women; the subject itself is serious and perfectly valid.
Other correspendents complain that only a vociferous minority want women priests. am surprised that Catholics can suggest the truth of any matter depends upon the number of people believing it. Mary Green "Vineleigh", Wordsworth Avenue, Sheffield.
The call to the priesthood. whether experienced by mcn or women, is a far cry from anything to do with "trendy bandwagons," as Miss Joanna Nash says in her letter of October 26.
The present shortage of priests is directly relevant to this question. Far from being a luxury to be discussed in a future utopia, the ordination of women would help to solve some of the problems which we are facing today by utilising more fully the complementary capabilities and attributes of both men and women in the ministry and government of the Church.
Vivienne Lake 12 Cottesmore Gardens, London W.8.