Vatican City ? Rejecting any change to celibacy for priests, bishops from around the world suggested dioceses share clergy and step up recruiting to cope with a priest shortage that makes it difficult for many Roman Catholics to attend Mass regularly, the Vatican said Saturday.

The 250 prelates attending the Oct. 2-23 Synod of Bishops have drawn up an initial set of proposals to vote on in the coming week and present to Pope Benedict XVI for his consideration in a future document.

The Vatican released summaries of various working groups that drafted the proposals, none of which suggested reconsidering the requirement that priests remain celibate. Several reaffirmed the value of a celibate priesthood.

A group of French-speaking bishops discussed letting married men be ordained, but the proposal “has not reached majority approval,” the Most Rev. Paul-Andre Durocher, of Canada, said in a report on the group’s work.

The priest shortage has been a major theme of the synod, with some bishops complaining that their faithful can attend Mass only once a month because there are too few priests to go around.

Some liberal Catholics and church reformers say lifting the celibacy requirement would alleviate the shortage by encouraging more men to enter seminaries.