FROM A ROME CORRESPONDENT HE third World Synod of Bishops will meet some time in the autumn of 1971, a Vatican spokesman announced on Tuesday.
Mgr. Rubin, the Polish-born Secretary-General of Synod Secretariat, said that the bishops attending a four-day conference last week agreed to continue consultation on the "most important problems" the Synod might take up.
It could mean a full airing by the bishops of such critical issues as priestly celibacy and birth control—provided the Pope agreed to place them on the Synod agenda.
At the last Synod which
finished in September 1969, the bishops recommended several steps the Pope could take to grant more authority to bishops in handling church affairs.
The Pope agreed to bring bishops from around the world into the Vatican Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. It was this enlarged Vatican body which met last week.
Mgr. Rubin said the body would help the Pope in forming an agenda for the next Synod.
"It appears we are on the road for the realisation of the principle of collegiality (sharing of episcopal power by the Pope and bishops)," Mgr. Rubin said.