A clerical church will never permit Reinhard Marx's views

The current issue of The Tablet reports on Munich's archbishop Reinhard Marx pleading for more women leaders in the church.

"For the sake of our credibility as a church and our credibility as bishops, we must do everything we possibly can to get women to take up leading positions in the church," Marx said.

He goes on to point out that young people simply do not believe that the church will treat women as equals.

Marx says that positions open to laymen in the church must also be open to laywomen.

But does Cardinal Marx get it? As long as there is an embedded clerical church, is any significant change possible.

A good example is the role of the parish pastoral council. It is up to the parish priest whether or not they have any say or power in the running of the parish.

Far to many parish pastoral councils are PR window-dressing operations, which means they are a waste of time and indeed in so many ways a lie.