Bishops Delay Action on Changing Liturgy

With the shadow of the sexual abuse scandals hanging over them, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops ended four days of deliberation Thursday, using the annual session to act on issues from foreign policy to the family.

But on the issue that would most directly affect the 55 million American Catholics--the language they use in Sunday worship--the bishops were unable to resolve their differences. They put off key decisions on the liturgy until next year.

The bishops, meeting here for the annual fall meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, hotly debated the liturgy, including a new, officially produced English translation of the prayers read in church on Sunday morning (the Sacramentary) that sought to use more inclusive language and an independently produced translation of the Psalms for liturgical use.

After more than three hours of debate--including charges that a free-flowing translation known as the Grail Psalter was “ideologically driven” by feminists and other non-traditional Catholics--the bishops decided to send the proposed Sacramentary back to committee for examination for possible doctrinal deviations.

Because neither the two-thirds majority needed for approval nor the one-third minority needed for rejection could be mustered for the vote on the Psalter, the bishops were forced to take a mail ballot on whether to approve the translation for liturgical use.

The four-day meeting of the bishops conference and its social policy arm, the U.S. Catholic Conference, was clouded by an unexpected and unwelcome event--a suit filed against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, one of the nation’s most prominent and prestigious prelates, alleging that Bernardin had sexually molested a teen-ager two decades ago.

Bernardin adamantly denies the charges and won a strong and emotional endorsement from his fellow bishops, who gave him a minute-long standing ovation after the conference’s president, William Keeler of Baltimore, expressed the group’s confidence in his innocence.

At the conference, the bishops addressed the problem of clergy sexual abuse that has wracked the church in recent years. The bishops agreed to ask the Vatican for changes in church law that would make it easier for a bishop to bring charges against and dismiss a priest found guilty of molesting children.

They also approved a set of procedures that will make it easier to track and identify priests who are transferred because of various problems.