Bishops Reaffirm Priestly Celibacy at Vatican Synod : Religion: Delegates ending a monthlong international conference echo papal conservatism on the issues.

A monthlong international synod of Roman Catholic bishops ended here Saturday on an assertive, traditional note, effectively closing the door to any prospect of liberalization in the celibate male priesthood during the papacy of John Paul II.

The synod’s officially secret conclusions reaffirm the tight Vatican rein on the church that has become a hallmark of John Paul’s rule. In a month of speeches and in their conclusions, the 237 bishops echoed papal conservatism on issues of doctrine.

Briefing reporters at the end of the congress on issues regarding priests, bishop-delegates said Saturday that the synod forwarded 41 proposals to the Pope. Their theme, the bishops made plain, is not how to change the priesthood, but how to fortify the institution in its current form.

The synod is a consultative rather than a deliberative body. John Paul II is free to accept or discard its proposals. Vatican officials say the Pope will weigh them in formulating an exhortation on priestly formation to be released next year.

Among the synod’s suggestions is a one-year course in general education and spiritual training for candidates for the priesthood before they enter seminaries. The bishops also call for continuing formal education for priests after ordination.

Several of the proposals urge the Pope to reassert celibacy as a cornerstone of the priesthood. Celibacy, delegates told reporters, is here to stay.

“We have to be honest and to remove any doubt about celibacy of priests. We must not give any false impression among candidates for the priesthood, and among priests themselves,” said American delegate Bishop John P. Foley, stressing synod support for the church tradition of priestly celibacy.

Theologians in the United States, Europe and Latin America have long suggested reconsideration of the question of creating a married clergy, saying that it would strengthen the church at a time of a serious lack of vocations and a diminishing number of priests in some countries.

The Vatican rejects even debating the idea. On Saturday, the 70-year-old pontiff, whose backing of celibacy is unflinching, thanked delegates for their support.

“The synod has unequivocally confirmed the choice of priestly celibacy,” the Pope said with satisfaction. “Some people have asked if it wouldn’t be possible in some circumstances to consider the ordination of mature married men of proven Christian virtue. This solution is not to be taken into consideration. . . . We must respond with other means.”

During the synod, Vatican officials told diplomats that media coverage of celibacy is disproportionate to its place in the deliberations. The Pope made the same point Saturday.

“As is well known, the possibility of appealing for the ordination of proven Christian men is too often evoked within the framework of a systematic propaganda which is hostile to priestly celibacy. Such propaganda finds support and complicity in some mass media,” John Paul II told his bishops.

During the synod, bishops learned that two elderly married Brazilians, who promised to forswear sexual relations with their wives, had been ordained in areas where priests were scarce. The Vatican quickly made clear that those cases were the rare exception to the rule.

Catholics who support the idea of married priests say it would regularize irregular relations between priests and women in many countries and reincorporate into the church thousands of former priests who abandoned their calling to get married. Many would return if they could, these supporters say.

Last June, American Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh, a synod delegate, met in Santa Clara, Calif., with a group of married former priests. The meeting raised eyebrows here and drew a quick letter of inquiry from the Vatican.

Vatican observers say the letter was at least a tacit rebuke to Wuerl. They say its dispatch to a prelate who is among the most traditional of American bishops is eloquent testimony not only of official firmness on celibacy, but also of John Paul’s entrenched conservatism and his determination to enforce central authority.

Its formal deliberations ended, the synod closes officially today with a Mass concelebrated by the Pope and his bishops and an address by the departing bishops to Catholics around the world.