A synod of Roman Catholic bishops yesterday clearly reaffirmed priestly celibacy and ruled out allowing clergy to marry as a solution to the crisis of vocations facing the Church worldwide.
The working sessions of the three-week synod, the first of Pope Benedict's papacy, closed with 50 propositions and a message to the world from the more than 250 bishops.
Overall, the synod's decisions have dashed the hopes of some liberal Catholics for movement on issues such as married priests, celibacy and the divorced faithful.
The message acknowledged "the life of our Church is also marked by shadows and problems which we have not ignored".
It said: "The lack of priests to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist worries us a great deal and invites us to pray and more actively promote vocations."
The synod theme was the Eucharist, the communion that Catholics believe is the body and blood of Christ. The Pope may use the recommendations for a possible future document.
The shortage of priests to serve the 1.1 billion-member Church was perhaps the key issue in the synod, which closes ceremonially with a papal Mass today on St Peter's Square.
One bishop from Honduras drove the point home by saying he had only one priest for every 16,000 Catholics in his diocese.
Some Catholics suggested their Church ordain viri probati, the Latin term for older, married men with families who are known to lead exemplary personal lives in their communities and have a solid background in Church doctrine.
Liberal groups have suggested that the long-term solution to the shortage was making celibacy optional for new priests by allowing them to marry.
But the proposition dedicated to the shortage of priests called celibacy a priceless gift and the possibility of viri probati was dismissed.
Australian Cardinal George Pell told a news conference the unity the synod showed on such delicate issues was significant.
"If you restate the central doctrinal positions of the Church with a massive unanimity on the nature of the Eucharist, that's something. And if you reaffirm a particular discipline, or two or three disciplines, that's also something," he said.
Both the message and the propositions mentioned the problems of millions of Catholics who have divorced and remarried outside the Church without being granted an annulment.
Since the Church still recognises their first marriage, they are banned from receiving communion because they are considered to be living in sin.
During the synod, Archbishop John Atcherly Dew of New Zealand challenged the Church to re-think the rules. The message merely said the bishops "know the sadness of those who do not have access to sacramental communion because of their family situation", but reaffirmed the existing ban.
The proposition on the divorced appeared to offer one small window of hope when it said Church tribunals which decide on whether to grant annulments should make "every possible effort" to work in a more "correct and speedy" way.