Bishops Adopt Environment, Family Planning Policies : Catholicism: U.S. officials defeat a move to cut back holy days of obligation, saying they are a powerful symbol of faith for those who observe them.

WASHINGTON —  U.S. Catholic bishops have approved a policy statement on the environment that criticizes the “voracious consumerism” of the West and encourages natural family planning to ease the population crisis.

In a separate effort to integrate church teaching into a national debate, the bishops also passed an initiative on youth that deplores the high poverty, abortion and infant mortality rates in the nation and rejects “safe sex” approaches to combating AIDS.

“Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come unto me.’ Today, as his followers, we say, ‘Let us put our children first,’ ” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops said in the statement approved 221 to 4 on Thursday, the final day of their fall meeting.

Leaders of the nation’s largest religious denomination also voted 165 to 5 to support a statement urging the church to address the social justice concerns of American Indians as it commemorates the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Americas.

The statement calls for the just resolution of treaty disputes and encourages giving a greater church role to the nation’s Indian Catholics, estimated to number more than 250,000. The statement proposes the establishment of a national Committee on Native American Catholics.

The bishops rejected proposals Wednesday to cut back the church’s six holy days of obligation to just the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8 and Christmas.

Some holy days were less popular than others, but all the proposals to eliminate them fell short of the two-thirds approval needed to make a change.

The bishops voted 151 to 97 to move Ascension Thursday from 40 days after Easter to the seventh Sunday after Easter. They also voted 135 to 113 in favor of dropping a special day of obligation honoring Mary on Jan. 1.

Holy days for the Assumption of Mary, Aug. 15, and All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, drew the most support, with a majority of bishops voting to retain them.

About a quarter of the nation’s 55 million Catholics attend most holy day services, about half of the number who attend Sunday Masses, according to church officials.

The environmental statement generally avoids specific policy proposals, but encourages further research into species extinction, deforestation and global warming.

The statement says that population control is an environmental issue, but the larger issue is the West’s overconsumption.

“Regrettably, advantaged groups often seem more intent on curbing Third World births than on restraining the even more voracious consumerism of the developed world,” the bishops said.

In an amendment approved Thursday, the bishops said environmental policies should address the overpopulation issue through natural family planning “rather than coercive population control programs or incentives for birth control which violate cultural and religious norms and Catholic teaching.”

In their statement on youth, the bishops decry the fact that children are the poorest members of American society, with one in five growing up in poverty.

The statement also asks the nation to consider the fact that the U.S. infant mortality rate is the highest among 20 Western nations, and that the nation’s divorce and abortion rates are the highest in the Western world.

The public policy recommendations in the statement “Putting Children and Families First” include calls to revise tax and welfare polices to help the poor, to provide “family friendly” child-care policies in the workplace and to establish a “children-first principle” in divorce law.

In the wake of basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson’s announcement that he has the AIDS virus, the bishops amended the policy statement to add a call to confront the AIDS crisis by promoting chastity among single people.

“Instead of promoting the illusion of ‘safe sex,’ we need to warn our children and society of the dangers of sexual promiscuity and drug abuse,” the bishops said.

The bishops’ debate on holy days revolved around whether U.S. Catholics should have a moral obligation to attend Mass other than Sundays in an age when demanding work and family commitments have led many to stay away.

“Is it prudent to burden the consciences of our people?” asked Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco. “It seems to me it would be better not to burden the consciences of our people.”

Bishop Michael Kenny of Juneau, Alaska, said keeping the holy days would be to ignore the reality of modern life.

“People are not taking the obligation seriously,” he said.

But a group of powerful prelates, including the cardinals of New York, Washington and Boston, argued that the holy days remain a powerful symbol of faith for those who observe them.

And the sight of Catholics walking from their offices to noon Mass in a downtown church on holy days is a witness to others struggling to live up to the demands of their faith, said Cardinal James Hickey of Washington.

“I submit that we need a spiritual alarm clock. . . . I beg us not to throw away the alarm clocks,” he said.

In other business Wednesday, the bishops rejected a proposal to allow lay people with special expertise to preach at liturgies, and approved a text for a children’s Mass that attempts to make the liturgy more understandable to an 8-year-old audience.

The bishops voted 141 to 107 to turn down proposed norms for lay preaching that would have allowed lay people to preach in church in special circumstances, such as when an ordained minister was unavailable or unfamiliar with the language of the congregation.

Some bishops said the norms would open the door for lay people to give sermons, but retired Bishop William E. McManus criticized the prelates for having a legal mentality that is condescending to the laity.

“This is not the season to draw distinctions between clergy and laity. We’re (all) the faithful,” he said.

But a new text of a children’s Mass that attempts to make the liturgy understandable to a young audience was overwhelmingly approved by the prelates.

The new text shortens liturgical readings that may be too complicated for 8-year-olds and translates terms like ark into a big boat.