Victim advocates lobby bishops on eve of critical abuse policy

WASHINGTON -- On the margins of the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops' meeting, sex abuse victims pressured church leaders one last time Tuesday to toughen their policy for dealing with molesters in the clergy.

The activists, barred from speaking to reporters in the lobby of the prelates' hotel, gathered across the street to question the bishops' assertion that their new plan shows the church has transformed itself. The bishops are expected to adopt the policy today.

"In the next 24 hours, we will still do everything we can to improve the bishops' policy," said Terrie Light of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "We call upon these bishops to keep moving forward in their own dioceses."

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., who helped oversee revisions in the plan under consideration, said the church leaders agreed last June to remove all molesters from active ministry and maintain that commitment.

"It may be that people who are in such pain right now can't see that," Lori said. "It may take some time."

The bishops originally passed a disciplinary plan when they met five months ago in Dallas. The policy before the group now is a revision negotiated with the Vatican that gives priests greater protection and privacy while church authorities investigate abuse claims against them. It also underscores that bishops, not lay people, have the authority to oversee clergy.

Once the policy is approved, it will be sent to the Vatican for a final review and will then become church law in the United States.