c. 1998 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Bishops from the furthest reaches of the Roman Catholic world have called on Pope John Paul II to reconsider church opposition to the ordination of married men in order to relieve a severe shortage of priests.

The carefully worded request came from prelates attending a three-week Vatican meeting of the 117 bishops from Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and the Pacific, which held its final working session Friday (Dec. 11).

Other issues the prelates discussed included the problem of sexual abuse by clergy and religious, the need to recognize the local culture in Catholic liturgy, expanding the role of women and laity in general, Catholic education and relations with the administrative bodies of the church in Rome.

They also expressed support for the struggle of indigenous minorities for their rights, compassion for Catholics estranged from the church and concern over the effects of industrialization, tourism and global warming on the fragile ecology of the region.

Although priests are in short supply in many parts of the world, bishops serving the minute and widely scattered atolls of the Pacific reported a situation that shocked even their fellow prelates.”They told us that on some atolls, Catholics receive communion every two years. I’ve heard of months, but two years blew everybody’s mind,”Bishop James Foley of Cairns, Australia, said in a briefing for reporters on the closed sessions.

Other bishops reported that priests were able to visit small and isolated communities in the interior of Papua New Guinea only once a year.”There was a certain sympathy for the ordination of mature married men to relieve the shortage of clergy, although it was certainly not a uniform call,”Foley said.

Archbishop Barry James Hickey of Perth, Australia, confirmed at a closing news conference that the 48 propositions the bishops drew up for presentation to the pope contained references to the lack of priests in some areas of the region.

The propositions, on which the pope will base the final report he will write on the synod of Oceania bishops, were not made public, but a message the bishops will distribute to the 8 million Catholics of Oceania referred to the issue of celibacy.”The Eucharist must stand at the heart of our sacramental life and our faith,”it said.”For this reason, concern was expressed about the non-availability of the Eucharist in some areas. Given the centrality of the Eucharist, the ordained priesthood grows in importance; and this consideration led to other questions touching on the issue of priestly celibacy, vocations, formation and ongoing support for priests.” Foley said that in drafting the propositions, the bishops had decided to use general terms rather than specifics.”We thought it was a better tactic to ask for a reconsideration of the church’s discipline on celibacy instead of urging an experiment in married priests,”he said.

Eastern rite churches in communion with Rome do ordain already married deacons and priests but do not permit marriage after ordination and require bishops to be celibate. The Roman Catholic Church on rare occasions has accepted married priests, notably Anglicans protesting the ordination of women, but gives them administrative rather than pastoral jobs.

Previous synods of bishops also have discussed the issue of married priests but did not go as far as the bishops of Oceania. Some concluded by reaffirming the ban on married clergy.

Although priests of the early church were free to marry, celibacy modeled on the life of Jesus has been the rule in the Roman Catholic Church since the 12th century.

The Rev. Patrick Moroney, provincial superior of the Congregation of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Australia, attending the synod as an auditor, urged that the rule be re-examined.”It would be a great grace,”he said,”(if) another look could be taken at the situation of ordaining committed married men to the priesthood and also the possibility of a more compassionate assessment of the situation of priests who have left due to their inability to live the celibate life.” But others pointed to practical drawbacks.

Foley said he saw among Anglicans, who ordained older, married men,”an aging clergy with fixed views and relatively little pastoral experience.” Bishop Raymond Kalisz of Wewak, Papua New Guinea, who is president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, said that the married candidates for ordination would be mainly catechists or deacons, who spoke only the local language and had little education.”They are good, intelligent people, but if we ordain them we risk creating a second-class priesthood,”he said.

Kalisz said another problem was that local custom dictates that after the death of a married priest, the parish has to support the wife and children of the priest for the rest of their lives.

Vatican procedure calls for the pope to travel to Oceania early in the year 2000 to deliver a post-synodal apostolic exhortation based on the bishops’ propositions similar to the visit he will make next month to Mexico City and St. Louis to respond to the Synod of the Americas which was held in late 1997. The Oceania bishops voted to invite John Paul to a regional meeting to be held in Noumea, New Caledonia.

DEA END POLK