Catholic bishops from around the world have chosen to bury their heads in the sand. Apparently, even that uncomfortable pose is preferable to taking the steps necessary to deal with what many of them call the greatest problem facing the Church today – the acute shortage of priests.

Meeting for the first time since Benedict became pope; the bishops emerged from a three-week-long conference reaffirming the requirement of priestly celibacy. In a stunning display of cognitive dissidence, the men meeting in Rome also enthusiastically endorsed the central role of the Eucharist in Catholic life. But thousands of the faithful are denied the sacrament on a regular basis because there is no priest anywhere around.