Big Gamble on the Priesthood

By ROBERT T. ZINTL ROME

The glittering assemblage of 235 Roman Catholic bishops, gathered at a solemn pontifical Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, hardly resembled a convention of gamblers. Yet in large measure that is just what they were. As a month-long synod of representatives of the church's hierarchy drew to a close last week, the bishops were betting against a heavy losing streak. Faced with a net decline of 16,500 priests in the past decade, the church has decided to hold firm in its discipline, particularly on the touchy issue of clerical celibacy, in the belief that higher standards and a spirit of sacrifice will reverse the trend.

Many Catholics believe the time has come for the hierarchy to consider ordaining married men, or perhaps even women. As the synod was concluding, an Italian newsmagazine poll reported that 53% of the country's Catholics favor a married priesthood. In the U.S., priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley, himself no opponent of celibacy, claims that a change in the requirement "would probably lead to the ordination of 1,500 more priests a year."

When the synod's working sessions began on Oct. 1, however, Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves of Brazil reminded the bishops that Pope John Paul II has forbidden even discussion of the possibility of a married clergy. But a few bishops and interested observers suggested obliquely that the whole issue of matrimony and holy orders still needed airing. The subject got new life two weeks ago, when Brazil's Aloisio Cardinal Lorscheider disclosed that the Pope had permitted two married men to be ordained in remote regions of Brazil, where the shortage of priests is severe. (The priests had to promise to renounce sexual relations.) The bishops appeared to be unmoved. Rather than an end to celibacy, as one European prelate puts it, "our only hope is to challenge new priests to a life of sacrificial service."

The problem, as the hierarchy sees it, lies not with the job but with some of the jobholders. Too many priests, synod members concurred, have lost their sense of mission and spirituality, often facing a crisis of faith as well. The conference's solution is to improve the quality of priests by selecting them more carefully, training them better in church doctrine and encouraging a clearer commitment to celibacy as a sign of their "countercultural" calling. "This is precisely why we need a celibate clergy, to make people ask what we are doing," said Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk. "If the church is singing the same tune as everyone else, then who needs the church?"

In their own way, the bishops tried to meet their problems head on. The loneliness of a priest's life can be transformed into a more positive spiritual "solitude" through stronger emphasis on prayer, Chicago's Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and others argued. Priests should also be freed from their routine duties for renewal and a chance to vent their frustrations, the bishops believe. A requirement for "ongoing education" will be one of the suggestions the synod will send to the Pope.

( Rome is willing to gamble that a stronger if smaller corps of clergymen will eventually generate more vocations. There is some evidence to support that: the total number of seminarians worldwide has jumped from 62,000 to more than 92,000 during John Paul II's 12-year papacy. That is still far from adequate. Moreover, new recruits do not outnumber the priests who retire or die each year, but the net loss was down to 313 last year. "Overall the trend is positive," reported Archbishop Pio Laghi, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education.

Bishops from India, Africa and particularly the newly liberated churches of Eastern Europe pointed out that their pressing problem is less the barrier of celibacy than how to house would-be priests and where to find the books and teachers to train them. "Do not make the mistake of thinking that our people in Africa do not know what celibacy is and would rather have their priests married," Bishop Norbert Wendelin Mtega of Tanzania told the synod. "They cannot imagine a Catholic priest who is married."

Celibacy is not the only reason for the decline in vocations, particularly in the U.S. Among other factors that bishops cite are a rise in the number of mixed marriages, a decline in the number of children receiving a Catholic education, and even the reduced opportunity to meet many priests. The Pope, who is also seriously disturbed by reports of large numbers of homosexuals within the American clergy, has bluntly told the bishops that it is the direct result of poor selection by the seminaries. Directors of these institutions are under instructions to look more carefully at candidates to be sure that, as Bernardin puts it, they "are able to live the kind of life that the church wants."

The synod will ask John Paul to require seminary applicants to spend at least a preliminary year in a retreat house, deepening their spiritual calling and refreshing their knowledge of Catholic doctrine. Seminaries should also take more care in selecting the faculty who will instruct and guide new priests, the bishops proposed. And while on-the-job training in parishes became popular in the years after Vatican II, seminaries are now going back to the basics, with heavier emphasis on daily prayer and the study of theology, particularly the writings of the early church fathers.

The bishops could point to small signs of success: the overall seminary dropout rate has declined from 30% in the 1960s to 10%. But even if the vocational decline continues, the hierarchy has an answer: in recent years, lay people have taken over many of the tasks of running their parishes. "In that vision of the church, you don't need as many priests," said one bishop. That is cold comfort to Catholics who lack a priest to say Sunday Mass, but it is a vision that the bishops are determined to keep in case their gamble fails to pay off.

With reporting by Greg Burke/Vatican City