The modest resolution asked that a study be made with a view to considering optional celibacy as a possible element in the life of the Roman Catholic Church.

The women's ordination movements and the priests who ask for optional celibacy will certainly not be muffled as a result of the papal tour.

In addition he said the Imani Temple would permit "optional celibacy, which means our priests will be able to decide whether or not they want to marry."

Because the Vatican continues to cauterize the feminine dimension by refusing women in the fullness of ministry or by granting optional celibacy, the church is suffering.

Second, return to optional celibacy for priests.

Conservatives and liberals alike should acknowledge that sexual secrecy is destroying the church, and one way to save it would be to make celibacy optional.

The delegates want a revival of what they call "the biblical tradition of optional celibacy, which existed in the first 12 centuries of church life."

They cited several surveys indicating that most American Catholics support the ordination of women and optional celibacy among priests.

The movement stems from a letter sent in August by 163 priests in the Milwaukee diocese urging the nation's bishops to make celibacy optional.

The group generally favors optional celibacy for diocesan priests, and not for priests in religious orders.