austraLasia # 129

PROPOSALS OF THE SYNOD TO THE POPE

"Emphasis on Priestly Celibacy and Means of Communication

VATICAN CITY, DEC 13 -- Among the proposals the Synod for Oceania

presented to John Paul II, at the conclusion of the working sessions, is the

one on social communications, considered "strategic" in evangelization, given the advance of secularization.

According to the international agency 'Fides,' the participants have

proposed the creation of a "Media Center" for the whole Oceanic continent, to learn the contemporary communications language.

The second strategic area, according to the Synod, is Catholic education

(universities and schools), and the need to find teachers who are both witnesses and professionals.

The third area of concern is social justice and the environment. In this

regard, the Synod recommended further study of the social doctrine of

the Church and collaboration with other Christian denominations in defense of human dignity.

Two proposals relate to matrimony and the pastoral care of the separated and

divorced. One is dedicated to youth, with an appeal to the ecclesiastical world to learn the language of the young. There is a proposal to spread the vocation of permanent deacons; and, a proposal relating to the participation of women in the life of the Church.

The Synod dedicated twenty proposals to the consecrated life. According to

'Fides,' the extraordinary importance given to this subject relates to the particular situation priests and religious face in that continent: "isolation, long trips, secularism which ridicules celibacy, frailty." Among the twenty, is a request for forgiveness for sexual abuses of men of the Church. The remaining proposals praise priestly celibacy, as well as fidelity to the commitments made to the ministerial order. Not one of the proposals specifically requests exceptions to priestly celibacy to respond to the needs of isolated

communities.

"Joking at the end of the assembly -- 'Fides' reveals -- the Pope said,

smiling: 'We have prayed little in Latin these days ... We are the Latin Church, not Greek'." An allusion, according to the Vatican agency, to the obligatory character of celibacy in the Latin Church; as opposed to the Greek, the Latin tradition does not allow the marriage of priests.