As American cardinals prepare for next week's unprecedented Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse, their fellow church leaders remain divided over whether to reassign some abusive priests.
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops agree that pedophiles should be removed. And they're solidly against reassigning repeat offenders.
But some bishops believe there are clergymen who can be rehabilitated with counseling and close supervision, said Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The question is being debated among bishops as they wait for the outcome of next week's meeting of the pope, Vatican officials and U.S. cardinals, and plan for a June conference when they will vote on a national response to the crisis.
Researchers on sexual disorders agree that some offenders can be taught to control their behavior. But these same experts warn the level of distrust about how the church has handled abuse claims should make bishops cautious.
"Given the experience the church has had up to now with a fair number of failures with the policy, they're going to need to bend over backward to assure that there aren't any occurrences," said David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said now is not the time to even consider such a reassignment proposal.
"At a bare minimum, I think the bishops should adopt a five- or 10- year moratorium on reassigning any priest who molests a youngster," he said.
Clinicians draw a distinction between pedophiles, who target very young children, and adults who molest adolescents. Pedophiles have a high rate of re-offending, while adults who have a single sexual encounter with an older teen in many cases can be rehabilitated, researchers say.
Most of the victims of priestly sex abuse have been adolescent boys.
Bishops have been trying to reassure parishioners the church will act swiftly on molestation claims in the outcry after Boston Cardinal Bernard Law admitted allowing an alleged serial pedophile priest to continue to serve. The revelation sparked intense scrutiny of priest abuse claims nationwide.
Law has instituted a "zero tolerance" policy requiring all clergy and volunteers to report allegations of abuse against minors. Claims learned during confession or spiritual counseling are exempt.
At the Rome meeting, set for next Tuesday and Wednesday, the cardinals also are expected to lobby the Vatican to approve changes in church law that will allow them to remove pedophiles from the priesthood without labyrinthine appeals to Rome. Now, bishops can only temporarily suspend priests.
Yet, church leaders also face complaints from many priests who fear the rush to weed out molesters has led bishops to oust innocent clergymen. Under Catholic tradition, once a man is ordained, the church has a lifelong obligation to him for housing, financial support and other needs.
"How do you balance the rights of all the baptized with the special rights a priest receives when he's ordained?" Maniscalco said.
Maniscalco said some bishops feel reassignment can only be possible if abusive priests publicly admit their misconduct. He pointed to the case of the Rev. Jean Vogler, an admitted sex addict who spent 10 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. His parishioners at Holy Trinity Church in Evansville, Ind., know of his past and accept him.