Let's not rush into this: while a married clergy may be a smart move in the short run, we still need to ask some serious questions about who does what at church.

THE WORLD STOOD STILL IN NOVEMBER AS POPE Benedict XVI participated in a highly-anticipated meeting--though one unrelated to his high-stakes trip to Turkey. No, this was about a volatile intra-religious issue: celibacy. Though hyped by the media, the two-hour curial meeting resulted in the expected reaffirmation of celibacy. Still, only two weeks later the new prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, pointed out that "celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma of the church"--though the next day he denied that Rome was planning any changes.

For some, however, the fact that such conversations are taking place at all is cause for hope. If only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only a pope known as a tough-minded traditionalist can finally tackle celibacy. Besides, the "priest shortage" has long been a problem needing attention. Today as many as 500,000 Catholics a year in Brazil, the country with the world's largest Catholic population, defect to minister-rich evangelical churches. With one Mexican priest for every 7,200 Catholics in that country, compared to one minister for every 230 evangelicals, the time for a serious discussion about celibacy is long overdue.

Common wisdom suggests that married priests would be a quick fix to the "vocation crisis," and many have argued persuasively for a change. But a married clergy may have consequences beyond the challenge of paying a priest with a family or the possibility that with married priests could come divorced ones as well.

Indeed it's possible that one casualty of a married clergy would be one of the greatest achievements of the post-Vatican II church: lay ministry. For the truth is, there is really no "vocation crisis" at all in Catholicism. We are, on the contrary, vocation-rich, with scores of lay ministers answering their baptismal call to teach, sanctify, and serve God's people. This phenomenal growth is no doubt related to the decline of ordained ministry--and some still see lay ministers as second-class replacements at best. But others would argue that this shift has been the work of the Holy Spirit, transforming a rigid, clerical, hierarchical church into a far more dynamic, charismatic, egalitarian people of God, one that reflects the vision of Vatican II.

While a married clergy would probably not be the end of lay ministry, a quick change could short-circuit a more critical conversation about ministry as a whole. Indeed, rather than a curial kibitz about celibacy, what we need is some thinking outside the clergy-lay box that considers the best way to provide the baptized "the spiritual goods of the church," to which canon law says they have a right.

Frankly there is really no good reason for piling all the sacramental eggs into one clerical basket. Experience tells us that not all priests have the gifts for every ministerial function, and that won't change just because they're married. Why not commission trained chaplains to anoint the sick and qualified spiritual directors to celebrate Reconciliation? Why not create a new "order" of preachers made up of gifted laypeople to give the homily at Mass or of married couples chosen to prepare the engaged and be the official witnesses at their nuptials?

Even now any person may baptize in case of necessity and with the right intention, and a bishop can designate a layperson to preside at marriage and funeral rites. Until Vatican II we had seven "orders" of ministry, from porter to bishop, and according to St. Paul, "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:28). There is ample reason to adapt these precedents for the 21st century.

SUCH A WIDE-RANGING AND PERHAPS REVOLUTIONARY conversation is a lot harder to have--and its recommendations more challenging to implement--than a reconsideration of priestly celibacy. But it would be far more reflective of ministry today and far more responsive to the needs of God's people, whether in the rich countries of the West or the poverty-stricken developing world where most Catholics now live. But for the good of the church as a whole and for the sake of our gospel mission, it is a conversation we must have.

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By BRYAN CONES, associate editor of U.S. CATHOLIC.