Word: synods
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...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...