More than 240 Roman Catholics concluded discussions at the Philadelphia Archdiocese's first synod since 1934 and the first to involve lay participants.
The archdiocese is not releasing the recommendations that came out of the meeting. The three sessions were closed to parishioners, the public and the news media.
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua said he would consider synod recommendations, but not necessarily follow them, in setting policy.
To set the agenda, the five-county archdiocese distributed 800,000 ballots. The 6,000 returned ballots proposed 80 topics that were narrowed to nine. Among them: ailing parochial schools, anti-abortion issues and racism.