For Immediate Release September 14, 2005

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Catholics Ask Synod to Discuss Mandatory Celibacy, Women Deacons

Laity and Priests Deliver 30,000 Petitions, Priest Survey to Five U.S. Bishop Delegates, National Week of Prayer For Synod Begins October 4, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Lay Leaders Deliver Petitions, Priest Survey To Bishop Delegates to Synod from U.S Dioceses
During the last two weeks of September, Catholic delegations in five U.S. dioceses will meet with and/or deliver copies of 30,000 petition signatures to U.S. Bishop delegates to the Eleventh General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome October 2-23. They will also deliver the results of a survey of over 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. dioceses. Sixty Seven percent of priest respondents thought the Church should open discussion of the mandatory celibacy rule. (Survey info available at www.futurechurch.org)

The synod petition and priest survey were organized by two national Church reform groups, FutureChurch and Call to Action

“We wanted each of our U.S. Synod delegates to receive the petitions and survey results from people in their own dioceses who represent tens of thousands of Catholics, including many priests who are worried that parishes will close and we will lose access to the Mass if nothing is done about the priest shortage,” said Sr. Christine Schenk of FutureChurch. Catholics are also being encouraged to contact U.S. Synod delegates and the Pope directly via email addresses listed on the FutureChurch website. (For a list of Bishop delegates and lay leader contacts in each of five dioceses see below).

Schenk will deliver copies of the petition and survey results to Church officials at the Rome synod.

“Our members, including many priests, circulated the petition in their parishes, small faith communities to family members and on the internet for the past two years,” said Call To Action spokesperson, Linda Pieczynski. “Every week we received one or two large manila envelopes filled with petitions from one parish or another. Many Catholic parishes are being forced to close and that really spurred the campaign.”

National Week of Prayer Begins October 4
On the October 4 feast of early Church reformer St. Francis of Assisi, FutureChurch and Call To Action will launch a National Week of Prayer for the Synod. Thousands have pledged to pray individually and an estimated 25 prayer services will be held around the country to pray for Synod proceedings and that Synod delegates will open discussion of mandatory celibacy and women deacons. (A list of sites will be posted on September 21 at www.futurechurch.org. Click on Prayer for the Synod).

“Jesus told Francis to ‘go and repair my house, which you see, is falling down,’” said Emily Hoag who is organizing the prayer services from the FutureChurch office. “Our Church IS falling down. The priest shortage is getting worse, priests are exhausted from serving two and three parishes and the loss of access to the Mass is devastating to our Catholic people. It is a wonderful work of the Spirit that the International Synod on the Eucharist begins on October 2nd just before the Feast of Francis of Assisi. Francis and Clare really understood why rebuilding the Church is so important and we want to follow in their footsteps. ”

The petition asks synod leaders “to place the spiritual and sacramental needs of the People of God above every other consideration and begin a wide-ranging discussion among laity, priests, pastoral ministers and bishops about the need to remove mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood and to open the diaconate to the tens of thousands of qualified women serving the Church right now.” (see attached)

Signers claim their right under canon law to “make their views known about matters that concern the good of the Church” (c212). The petition pointed to the worldwide shortage of priests, the disciplinary (not dogmatic) nature of the celibacy rule and first century women deacons like Phoebe, as important reasons to open the desired. discussion,”

Opening the diaconate to women could give us a huge new pool of ministers to preach, baptize and witness marriages,” said Pieczynski. “Women ministers are holding the Church together. Eighty two percent of an estimated 65,000 lay ministers in the U.S. are women. Worldwide, there are only 405,000 priests but we have 783,000 nuns and over 1.5 million female lay ministers.”

“One out of five parishes in Boston is closing, Toledo is planning to close or cluster 33 parishes and Cleveland projects only 76 priests to serve 235 parishes in 2027,” said Schenk. “ The Catholic Church’s decline of active priests is having a dramatic impact especially since numbers of Catholics are increasing. Worldwide, according to Vatican statistics, the number of priests decreased by 2% since 1980 when we had 413,600 priests compared to 405,450 in 2004. In the meantime Catholics increased by 42 per cent from 783.7 million in 1980 to 1.11 billion in 2004.”

Since 1996, FutureChurch and Call To Action have been working to educate about the danger of losing the Mass and sacraments as one consequence of doing nothing about the priest shortage. Schenk herself has given educational programs about the priest shortage in over 100 U.S. dioceses.

“The Mass means everything to Catholics,” said Schenk “ I just hope it means everything to our Bishops too.”

FutureChurch and Call To Action through surveying Catholic priests, grassroots prayer and education programs and circulating petitions to the International Synod on the Eucharist, seek to promote dialogue from the grassroots to the Vatican about the need for removing mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood.

Call to Action is a national organization of 25,000 laity, religious and clergy with its national office in Chicago and 41 local chapters. It advocates for reforms in the Catholic Church such as equality for women and homosexuals in the Church, optional celibacy for priests, more focus on the church's social teaching, and consultation with the Catholic people on church decision making.

FutureChurch is a coalition of parish centered Catholics who seek the full participation of all Catholics in the life of the Church. FutureChurch strives to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. It seeks to participate in formulating and expressing the Sensus Fidelium (the Spirit inspired beliefs of the faithful) through open, prayerful and enlightened dialogue with other Catholics locally and globally.

For Official Catholic Directory statistics for every U.S. diocese, and results of our  anonymous survey of priests in 55 U.S. dioceses visit www.futurechurch.org

List of U.S. Bishop Synod Delegates and Catholic Laity and Priests
Requesting a Meeting and Delivering Petitions

Bishop William Skylstad Spokane Diocese, President of USCCB bishop@dioceseofspokane.org

Spokane FutureChurch Member Maggie Albo met with Bishop Skylstad on September 8th. She reminded the Bishop of the signers' great love for the Eucharist and their desire that it be available to all Catholic worldwide and then Bishop Skylstad graciously accepted the packet of over 30,000 petition signatories. Albo also told the Bishop that she believes it will require bold thinking on the part of the delegates and she promised prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the Synod.
Media Contact Maggie Albo( 509-928-8009 m_albo@comcast.net)

Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Archdiocese of Atlanta
archbishop@archatl.com

Laura Ward-Bogle, lay leader from Call To Action Atlanta gave Bishop Gregory a packet of materials and sought a meeting but his secretary said he is unavailable to meet prior to the Synod He did receive the e-mail but did not respond (“he receives about 100 a day”) Ward-Bogle will personally deliver the thirty thousand signatures to his office early in the week of Sept. 12 and “We will be praying for guidance from the Holy Spirit during their October meeting.”
Media contact Laura Ward-Bogle (770-682-9906 laurawardbogle@bellsouth.net)

Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
archbis@adphila.org

Joe Ruane, a married priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a FutureChurch member will seek a meeting with Cardinal Rigali’s office.
Media contacts are Joe Ruane( 215-596-8906 w. 215-387-7998 h j.ruane@usip.edu ) and FutureChurch member Regina Bannan (215-545-9649 bannan@temple.edu)

Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, Diocese of Pittsburgh
clergyreligious@diopitt.org

Lay and priest leaders from the Association for Pittsburgh Priests were told that Bishop Wuerl would not meet with them because the APP has lay members. He would meet with the priests at any time. At the September meeting of the APP, people will sign a cover letter and send it with the petitions to the Bishop. The group plans a press conference October 1 or 2.
Media Contact is Fr. John Oesterle (412 824-2644 johnoesterle@adelphia.net) and Ms. Sarah Wellinger (412-344-7493 SarahWellinger@aol.com

Alternates:

Bishop Donald W. Trautman Diocese of Erie
BishopOfc@erieRCD.org
Call To Action Lay Leaders in Erie, Pa published a newspaper ad in Erie asking for more petition signatures and are investigating meeting with Bishop Trautman.
Media Contacts are Barbara Roseborough (814-868-0129 popmomrose@msn.com) and Jane Kirk (janematheiskirk@msn.com)

Bishop Blase Cupich, Diocese of Rapid City, SD
605-343-3541
Was sent a copy of the Petitions and Survey in the mail.