TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/110590/1105610.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6.3 KB | 130 lines

                                                                                RELIGION, Page 83

Big Gamble on the Priesthood


Taking a hard line in defense of celibacy, the bishops look
instead to strengthen the character and training of candidates

By ROBERT T. ZINTL/ROME -- With reporting by Greg Burke/Vatican
City


    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.