The nation`s Roman Catholic bishops, after a lengthy closed-door examination of the church`s growing shortage of priests and nuns, have concurred that the lack of ordained ministers represents a keen crisis for American Catholicism.
But the prelates appear resolute in rejecting the mounting calls for changes in the mandatory vow of celibacy or in opening the priesthood to women, Bishop James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, the president of the U.S. bishops` conference, said at a press conference Tuesday.
Bishop Malone said, moreover, that the church may be at the threshhold of a new explosion of interest in the ministry by the country`s 52 million lay Catholics, who he said are increasingly assuming administrative and liturgical duties that once fell to the parish priest.
The eight-day assembly of 259 bishops, held at St. John`s University and Benedictine monastery in Collegeville, Minn., was designed to provide the church leaders with an opportunity for informal reflection on the sobering trends in full-time Catholic vocations, which Pope John Paul II has characterized as the ”fundamental problem of the church.”
Bishop Malone said the discussion was wide-ranging, noting that the bishops are willing to consider a number of means to encourage new candidates, as long as the proposals are ”not contrary to church law, practice or tradition.”
He acknowledged that a number of bishops raised the controversial questions of celibacy and ordination of women and married men during the session, ”but not for the purpose of changing church discipline.”
The corps of Catholic priests in the U.S. has declined marginally over the last two decades, although an increasingly large percentage are retired or incapacitated, leading to a number of parishes in remote areas that are served by a circuit-rider priest.
The bishops` study, however, comes on the heels of two new surveys by the Catholic University of America that indicate a modest upturn in the prospects for recruitment and job satisfaction in the priesthood.
One of the reports shows that active priests contend they are more content and fulfilled in their ministerial career today than they were 15 years ago. The other survey found that Catholic parents are increasingly more apt today to encourage their children to enter full-time church work.
The Collegeville meeting, closed to the news media, featured a series of papers presented by bishops, including a concluding address by Chicago`s Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. But it produced neither a list of conclusions nor recommendations, Bishop Malone said.
The Chicago archbishop, in a speech just before the meeting adjourned on Monday, urged his fellow prelates to teach ”a more positive, richer theology of sexuality, one that will elicit more assent and less dissent.”
He also called for a more forthright confrontation with the contentious issues of celibacy and other restrictions that govern the office of ordained priesthood.
”In a society where celibacy has become such a countercultural reality, what can we do to highlight its value,” he said, advancing the proposal that seminaries include a ”mature psycho-sexual development” of prospective priests as part of their theological education.
Although the bishops` gathering more resembled a retreat than a working session–the agenda provided two free afternoons for golf outings and
”watching the grass grow,” Bishop Malone said–the discussion is likely to resurface during formal business meetings of the bishops in the fall, the Youngstown prelate said.
