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During his recent trip to America, Pope Benedict XVI attended a youth rally at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. -- the same school where enrollment has dwindled to the point that no new prospective priests are enrolled next fall.
As the U.S. church ordains its crop of some 400 new priests in the coming weeks, church leaders hope Benedict's words of encouragement will inspire more men to consider the priesthood. The Rev. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, however, believes it will take a major change in Vatican policy on celibacy to revitalize the priesthood.
Cozzens, 69, has tracked the decline in vocations for more than a decade, including as rector of Cleveland's St. Mary Seminary from 1995 to 2000. In his 2006 book, "Freeing Celibacy," and in lectures all over the country, he argues celibacy should be optional for Catholic priests.
(Some answers have been edited for length or clarity.)

Q: What do you see as the reason for the decline in American men wanting to become priests?
A: The clergy sexual abuse scandals have taken their toll, but my hunch is that the typical size of the Catholic family is a major factor. Catholics on average are having about two children. And so, the replacement rate in the United States today -- for every 100 priests who either retire or die or leave ministry -- we're ordaining, I believe, less than 35.

Q: But you also argue that mandating celibacy for priests is a significant part of this problem?
A: I think celibacy is a great gift, and it's wonderful for people who have the grace and the gift and the calling, but it can be a very difficult situation for men who feel called to the priesthood but not to celibacy. Over the past half dozen years, I've asked probably two dozen men if they've ever thought of being priests, and every one of them has said yes, they have thought of it, but then they add, "I really feel also called to the sacrament of marriage, I'd like to be a husband and a father."

Q: When did you start thinking mandatory celibacy should be reconsidered?
A: The first time I thought about the priesthood, from my grade school days, I felt called to be a priest, and the issue of mandatory celibacy was a disquieting condition of the priesthood. But I didn't seriously look at the history of celibacy and its theology until after I was ordained. We've always (historically) had a married priesthood in the Catholic church. It really wasn't until the 12th century that celibacy was made mandatory for diocesan priests, and some historians argue that it really wasn't taken seriously until the 16th century.

Priest calls on pope to lift celibacy requirement.

Fr Daniel Walz wrote in an affidavit: "The parish members and I have been very patient and understanding. I have made repeated efforts through Catholic Education Ministries, Caritas Family Services, and most recently sought to try and mediate the matter with the family to ask them to voluntarily not bring Adam to church, but it has been to no avail."

Mrs Race has refuted the allegations from the church.
Pope Benedict XVI has been asked tp provide guidelines on how Roman Catholic churches should deal with autism and other disabilities after Fr. Daniel Walz took out a temporary restraining order on 13 year old Adam Race and his mother Carol Race. The Sheriff of Todd County threatened to arrest the pair if they broke the order by entering the church.

Call for Pope to act on autism in the wake of church ban

Cardinal Godfried Danneels was taking no chances. Two weeks before celebrating his seventy-fifth birthday on 4 June, he had already sent his letter of resignation to the Vatican. "Because you never know if the Italian post is working," the cardinal tells me playfully - and knowingly. After all, he lived in Rome from 1956 to 1959 while earning a doctorate in theology at the Gregorian University. But as I laugh at his gentle dig at the Italian work ethic, the cardinal breaks in with a mischievous grin: "I am a polite man, so I wanted [the letter] to be on time." And there it is, in the very first minute of our hour-long visit: Cardinal Danneels' subtle and ironic humour or the "Danneels Code" as one of his admirers calls it.

It's Friday, 4 p.m., and I am in the old Flemish city of Mechlin (Malines in French) at the archiepiscopal residence, sitting at a table with one of the top intellectuals in the College of Cardinals. But the stately white "palace" is the only external sign to the unsuspecting visitor that Cardinal Danneels is a man of importance. It is certainly not evident in his dress or demeanour. As usual, he is wearing a simple black suit with clerical collar. The only thing that distinguishes him from a parish priest is the silver pectoral cross around his neck and the flat gold band on his right-hand ring finger. There are no priest attendants or secretaries fussing over him, no clerical entourage to announce his presence. There are only two laywomen - a receptionist and another who accompanies guests to the cardinal's study.

Cardinal Danneels is obviously well aware of the symbolism of all this. After all, before being named a bishop in 1977 he taught systematic and sacramental theology for 18 years, the last eight of those at the fabled University of Louvain. So I ask him to explain the significance of his modern-looking pectoral cross with its image of the risen Christ. "It is a risen Lord, not the dying Lord," he points out. And it is "very cheap ... something like half a euro in Rome", he says. But this is not because he lacks taste. On the contrary. Cardinal Danneels, in the best Belgium tradition, is a man of high culture and a patron of the arts, though he is not above relaxing to the Dixie sounds of New Orleans jazz. "But I like it very much because it is Christ who is rising on the Cross. It is typical Johannine," he stresses. "If you look at the Cross with the crucified Jesus it is exactly correct. But you look at what we have before the Resurrection. We are [living] after the Resurrection ... and for a long time already," he says, his voice rising slightly as if to suggest that perhaps too many people have forgotten that part.

Where have all the thinkers gone? Interview with Cardinal Godfried Danneels

Despite stressing an emphasis on the positive, Fr. Lombardi was very clear that issues need to be addressed with courage and clarity. "We have to know how to recognize and denounce the evils, the risks and the dead ends present in contemporary culture," he said.

The consequences for failure in this regard are dire, he suggested. "It is vitally important to tell the truth with clarity and simplicity. Every ambiguity, every reticence and, worse still, every intentional concealment of the truth, will exact a dear price in the end. The vicissitudes connected to the sexual abuse crisis were the weightiest proof of this."..

Lombardi added however "Of course we must be realistic. We have to know how to recognize and denounce the evils, the risks and the dead ends present in contemporary culture. In this, Benedict XVI is clear and decisive. In this, he refuses to compromise."

Pope's Spokesman: "Every Intentional Concealment of the Truth, Will Exact a Dear Price in the End"

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (the Secretary of State, headed the list of participants in the even honoring Cardinal Casaroli, who served as Secretary of State from 1979 to 1990. Another former Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano had earlier presided at a memorial Mass for his predecessor.

Cardinal Casaroli was a renowned Vatican diplomat who served under 5 different Pontiffs.

Vatican conference honors late Cardinal Casaroli, top Vatican diplomat