Bishops discuss married priests petition

CathNews
December 6, 2007

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Philip Wilson has responded to a petition calling for married priests.

He gave an assurance that the Bishops had a discussion at last week's plenary meeting on the need to make "adequate pastoral and sacramental provision for the Church in Australia".

Catholica Australia reports the petition raised interest among the bishops and more than three hours were devoted to discussing the issue.

Dr Paul Collins, on behalf of the petition organisers, says he was “more than happy” with the formal letter response from Archbishop Wilson and general feedback from individual bishops.

“We were more than surprised with the level of interest the petition generated within the Church,” Dr Collins said.

“Our original hope had been to try and generate a response of around 10,000 signatures and to receive over 16,700, including over 160 responses from priests, exceeded their expectation by a long way,” he said.

SOURCE

Bishops Conference responds to Petition Signatories (Catholica Australia 4/12/07)