Roman Catholics: Priest Power

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"Power is the name of the game," said one Roman Catholic priest in Chicago last week. That was the mood of the 233 clerical delegates to the constitutional convention of the National Federation of Priests' Councils—the first such organization in the world. Inspired by the successful growth of diocesan-wide priests' associations and senate (TIME, Feb. 23), the federation has been in the works for a year and, like its local counterparts, it is designed to give priests a larger share in shaping the attitudes of a changing church.

The delegates, who came from 117 of the 156 U.S. dioceses, claim that the federation will represent 37,000 of the nation's parish priests. Mostly moderate activists, they chose as president the Rev. Patrick O'Malley, 36, administrator of a ghetto-area parish in Chicago, who insists that the organization "is well within the spirit of Vatican II," meaning specifically the democratic sense of "collegiality" that has developed in the postconciliar church. "The bishop is no longer king," said O'Malley. "We don't have to ask permission to undertake our projects."

O'Malley will be directly responsible to a 27-man executive board, which the convention authorized to act and speak for the membership at large on questions of national importance. To guide the leadership's thinking, the federation also organized a Social Action Committee, which was directed to draw up position papers on such issues as poverty, the morality of public demonstrations, conscientious objection and the recruitment of Negro priests (of whom there were none at the convention). Other groups will examine the feasibility of popular election of bishops, the liberalization of canon law and, of course, celibacy.

Federation officials insisted that they were not seeking to challenge the rightful authority of bishops, but some conflict with the hierarchy seems inevitable. Though most U.S. prelates have welcomed priests' councils in their home dioceses, none of the six bishops invited to the convention even sent his regrets. Rome seems to view the federation with some foreboding. "We are in sympathy with the priests' wishes," said a Vatican official, "but it would be a disruptive element within the church if all groups were permitted to establish national movements and then bring pressure on the church as a whole."