WASHINGTON — After two years of extensive discussions about whether to convene a potentially historic national plenary council or regional synod of the U.S. Catholic Church, the U.S. bishops have clearly rejected those ideas.

But they also made clear that they need to spend more time in dialogue and debate among themselves about what they need to do to respond to major issues facing the church across the nation.

The big issues they are concerned about are two generations of disarray in evangelization and catechesis in the U.S. church, declining Catholic participation in the Eucharist and other sacraments during that period, and the dramatic decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the past three decades.

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis was head of the ad hoc committee formed in 2002 to guide the bishops through a proposal by a group of bishops to convene a national plenary council.

He reported to the bishops Nov. 15 that after major discussions at their national meetings in June of 2003 and 2004, there was little support among the bishops for the idea of such a plenary council or another suggested alternative, a U.S. regional synod of bishops.

However, he said, the bishops had indicated support for other approaches to addressing the issues that surfaced during discussions of a possible council or regional synod. Responding to those indications, he asked the bishops to vote on a series of propositions on alternative ways to address those issues in the coming years.

He stressed that their votes would only express the general "sentiment" of the bishops, not bind the conference leadership to a specific course of action in the next several years.

In the first group of votes, the bishops expressed a strong preference to devote a full day of their June 2005 national meeting in Chicago to "further reflection and discussion" of major issues confronting the U.S. church.

Substantial majorities opposed only half a day of discussion or two days of discussion, and most rejected the idea of adding a day to the two-and-a-half-day meeting to give more time to such a discussion.

That meeting will have several other major items of business, including decisions on a new program of priestly formation, a statement on world mission and a statement on Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

In the next group of votes, the bishops were overwhelmingly supportive of the idea that three themes -- evangelization and catechesis, Eucharist and the other sacraments, and vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life -- constitute the key pastoral issues the U.S. Catholic Church faces today.

The bishops also agreed by a huge majority, 190-47, that outside experts as well as fellow bishops should participate in leading the discussions about how the bishops should address those issues.

Usually the bishops meet every third or fourth June in a special assembly at which no ordinary conference business is conducted but deeper issues confronting the bishops or the U.S. church are addressed. Those assemblies generally last a week or so, considerably longer than the usual two and a half days allocated to a June business meeting.

In votes on the 2006 and 2007 June meetings, the bishops suggested that both should be special assemblies, with media and nonessential staff excluded, to discuss the special issues facing the U.S. Catholic Church today.