PROPOSALS for a National Pastoral Congress to be held in 1980 will be further discussed by a joint committee of the Bishops' Conference and the National Conference of Priests.
The committee will clarify the proposals so that discussions can take place on a local level.
The recommendation for such a congress was one of a number of proposals put to the bishops by the National Conference of Priests, who also recommended that the conference should consider the pastoral welfare of homosexuals.
This matter is to be handled by the Social Welfare Commission, but the bishops made plain that the commission's work would be concerned with the pastoral care of homosexuals and their need for counselling and would not be a consideration of the rights and wrongs of homosexuality.