When the bishops of the Catholic Church meet Monday in Washington, they're expected to shift focus from the sexual abuse scandal that dominated their gatherings for nearly two years to the lives of everyday believers.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will consider a pastoral letter on private devotions, the personal prayers, meditations and practices of everyday Catholics, such as reciting the rosary or wearing a medallion honoring the Virgin Mary.
And outside their Capitol Hill hotel, church reform activists are expected to call for celibacy to be optional for diocesan priests — a move they say will bring thousands of new men and now-married former priests into the priesthood and alleviate a clergy shortage.
The sex scandal, which engulfed the church in January 2002, is still on the agenda. The Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse will update the bishops on the progress of two major studies due early next year. One looks at dioceses' compliance with the bishops' policies on identifying, reporting and preventing abuse. The other is a nationwide assessment of the number of priests and victims and the costs involved in abuse.
However, the bishops will return to the kind of agendas they have had for decades, addressing piety, peace, poverty and other daily concerns of the church. On Wednesday, they will vote on a proposed pastoral letter on devotions — those private spiritual practices that personalize the faith for millions of Catholics.
The letter stresses the proper role of devotions — to point believers back toward the liturgy and the Eucharist (the bread and wine Catholics believe becomes the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion) and the scriptures, says Monsignor John Strynkowski, who is on the staff of the Committee on Doctrine.
"All popular devotions need to be in harmony with that," says Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the Committee on Doctrine. He recalls a shift in his own lifetime: Before the 1960s reforms of Vatican II, which replaced the Latin Mass with ceremonies in local languages, "the faithful used to say the rosary to themselves during Mass because they didn't know what was going on. Now we say this is not appropriate. They should concentrate on the Mass," Troutman says.
The Rev. James Martin, an associate editor of America magazine and editor of an upcoming book of essays on devotions, Awake My Soul, says more young Catholics participate in devotions because they are "seeking a greater sense of mystery in their lives."
One tradition of such meetings lives on: rival news conferences by reform groups. Leaders of Call to Action and FutureChurch plan to present 6,000 letters on Tuesday calling for celibacy to be optional.
"There is no need for any Catholic to go without Eucharist, because we have many qualified people ready to serve as priests if the Vatican would change ordination rules," says Linda Pieczynski of Call to Action.