If humility meant putting up with this continued repression, supporting an organization that perpetuated such abuse, she wanted no part of it. Why had it taken her until now to see what was under her very nose? How ironic, that it was in a convent, in the process of offering her life to God and the Church, that the scales were falling from her eyes, she thought ruefully.

The following day she went to confession. ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s a week since my last confession, Father. I have grave doubts about the Church, and becoming a nun. I have fears about taking my final vows,’ she declared.

‘That’s normal, my child, I would have fears for you if you didn’t,’ Monsignor LeFrey, the chaplain to the convent, said humorously. ‘Tell me about your doubts about the Church, firstly, so I can allay them for you.’

It poured out of her, her sudden awakening. Why could women not be priests? It was a man-made law, not the law of Jesus.

In the dark of the confessional, kneeling to a man who sat with a barrier between them, looking down upon her, Keelin was too upset to see the irony of her position.

‘So you are one of these new feminist types that I’m seeing so many of, lately,’ the monsignor said slowly.

Keelin felt a wave of relief at his words. She wasn’t alone. There were others with doubts, here in France as well as America.

‘Wanting equality is important,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t like to label people.’

‘And you imagine that you, a young, untried girl, know better than the finest theological minds in the Church? You think you know more than the Pope, who is infallible when he makes decisions concerning the Church. Jesus had twelve apostles. They were men. His women followers played their role also, just as you will, dear Sister, but first you must overcome this uprising of the ego. The ego is the greatest enemy to those of us in Holy Orders. Your greatest battles will be with your ego and not Mother Church, as you imagine. Suppress the ego so that humility will triumph and you have won the battle. Be humble in your thoughts. Be meek and self-effacing in your daily duties and you will come through. Leave these thoughts about women’s place in the Church, and the Pope’s encyclicals, to wise and experienced theologians whose job it is to rule on such things. Go teach the little children in Africa of the love of Jesus and the glory of the Church. Pray to our Holy Mother to make you unpresumptuous in thought. Say five rosaries and fast for two days as your penance. Now say your act of contrition and ask for forgiveness, my child, that I may grant it to you. Oh my God . . .’ he began patronizingly, as though she were a six-year-old.