What Vatican sex-abuse summit may achieve

Several observers agree that the meetings will concentrate on how the US church should handle the pedophilia scandal. A unified approach – among all the 194 US dioceses – is necessary for reporting child abuse cases to civil authorities instead of handled internally, those observers say.

Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the US Bishops' conference, said the cardinals would examine whether there should be a "one strike and you're out" rule for pedophile priests. Most dioceses have had policies to deal with such cases since the early 1990s. But policies and enforcement vary greatly. Even a binding national policy might not be enforced or implemented evenly, say some observers. They note that in referring to a national reporting policy for the sex-abuse, church officials refer repeatedly to a policy of turning over "credible allegations" to police.

This is not reassuring to some social workers and police who've said they want to make the determination of what is credible themselves, without an intermediary.

Other possible policy discussions in the Vatican meeting, say analysts, are likely to include better screening of future priests at seminaries and better training for priests in handling cases where other priests have abused children. Also, issues of the celibacy requirement and homosexuality in the priesthood are bound to come up.

On Saturday, John Paul made his views clear in a meeting with visiting Nigerian bishops: "Behavior which might give scandal must be carefully avoided, and you yourselves must diligently investigate accusations of any such behavior, taking firm steps to correct it where it is found to exist."

A more difficult problem for the pope and cardinals, say analysts, is how to restore credibility in church leadership without losing the political edge in the church hierarchy. If Cardinal Law, whose resignation was reportedly rejected by the Vatican, is allowed to resign, the domino effect of possible other resignations could undermine the ultra-conservative hierarchy's power.

And for Catholics like James Muller, the issue of power is the root of all the church's problems. He's a Boston physician and ardent Catholic who's been converted to activism by the church sex scandal.

"We have two problems in our church," he says, "only one of which is priest pedophilia. We covered it all up. And that's an institutional problem of the church. I'd like to see that as a topic of discussion at the Vatican. I believe the root problem in this cover-up is unchecked power of the hierarchy."

His message of shaking the church hierarchy with grass-roots democracy and raw financial clout of well-heeled donors is apparently a compelling message. In three days last week, Muller's new group, Voice of the Faithful, grew from 400 supporters to 1,500. It wants the laity to help select their bishops, instead of the pope alone. It also wants a larger role for women in the church and serious debate on allowing priests to marry – concerns shared by many US Catholics.

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