DALLAS, May 17 — American Catholic bishops are scheduled to gather here next month to debate a tough new policy on sexual abuse, but many dioceses around the nation have already carried out what amount to zero-tolerance rules, swiftly removing accused priests and dealing harshly with clergy members who fail to adopt guidelines on preventing abuse.
As they try to get tough, the bishops in several dioceses have been surprised by the reaction of parishioners who think the new approach amounts to a witch hunt.
An overwhelming majority of Catholics still demand that the church hierarchy take a hard line on sexual abuse, but that can change when parishioners suddenly find that their own beloved pastor has been removed.
One of the most heated conflicts between bishops and the faithful took place in Dallas in April, when the local bishop removed two pastors not because of any accusation of sexual abuse, but because they failed to fully comply with new requirements to investigate the backgrounds of all church volunteers, even nuns.
"I thought when people would have seen us doing what we did, being serious about not putting vulnerable people and children at risk and meaning it, that they would have said, `Bravo!' But they didn't," said Bishop Charles V. Grahmann of the Diocese of Dallas. "What the laity is showing by these actions is that it doesn't want zero tolerance."
Parishioners say the church is overcompensating after doing too little to prevent abuse in the first place.
"They're going to war on their own priests in an effort to save their reputations," said Gloria M. Tarpley, a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish who fought the removal of her pastor. "Is zero tolerance appropriate when dealing with an instance of actual abuse? Absolutely. But for missing paperwork? No way."
In trying to take the tough stance on abuse that the cardinals who met the pope in Rome last month could not agree on, dioceses around the country are finding that not every Catholic seems to think zero tolerance should apply to all cases:
At Sacred Heart Church in New Orleans, more than 300 parishioners signed a petition in support of their pastor, who was removed last month because of an incident involving a teenager more than 15 years ago.
Near Richmond, Va., parishioners at St. Michael's Church wear buttons and T-shirts supporting their pastor, who was removed recently for an incident of what the diocese described as "inappropriate judgment" that took place 31 years ago.
In Azusa, Calif., parishioners at St. Frances of Rome formed a chain around the church to keep out protesters after their pastor was removed following accusations of what detectives have called "inappropriate touching." The police had to remove one parishioner who struck a protester.
Parishioners at Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven, N.Y., are rallying around their 74-year-old pastor, who was removed because of an accusation about an incident involving a teenager that took place 35 years ago.
In Blue Bayou, La., parishioners at St. Louis Church want their pastor back even though a photograph in a recent book showed him bare chested with a Mardi Gras drag queen.
Experts say parishioners are angry because church leaders continue to impose decisions and policies from above, without input from the laity.
"All these incidents suggest that the hierarchy still is far removed from recognizing the problems of a church structured for the 15th century operating in the 21st century," said William D'Antonio, a research sociologist at Catholic University in Washington. "If all the church leaders want to do is act as the hierarchy and tell parishioners what to do, then they have learned nothing from what has happened over the last several months."
Susan J. Stabile, a professor at St. John's University Law School in New York and a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven, said zero tolerance often sounds like a better solution than it turns out to be.
"Zero tolerance under any circumstances is just too blunt a tool" no matter where it is applied, Professor Stabile said.
"No one is excusing what happened in the past," she said. "But the church is essentially creating a system that says a priest who is accused of anything is guilty until proven innocent, and that is a virtually impossible standard to meet."
The pastor of Professor Stabile's parish was removed by the Diocese of Rockville Center because of an accusation involving sexual misconduct with a teenager 35 years ago. He denied the accusation.
Even if he had not, Professor Stabile believes there should be room for forgiveness. "This is a church whose fundamental notion is that there is no sin for which there cannot be redemption," she said.
Groups representing victims of priests say such attitudes fail to comprehend the depth of the victims' pain. "There's still a lot of denial and minimalization going on," said Barbara Blaine, the president and founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Although some congregations have protested the removal of priests, she said, such disciplinary measures are still relatively rare because most diocesan policies are vaguely written and poorly enforced.
"From my perspective," Ms. Blaine said, "these are just anomalies."
But church leaders say that if parishioners in Dallas can react negatively, the same thing can happen anywhere. In 1998, the diocese suffered through the civil and criminal trials of Rudolph Kos, a suspended priest and notorious abuser who was sentenced to life in prison. The priest's victims won the largest civil settlement in any clergy abuse case — $119.6 million, later reduced to $31 million.
After the trials, the diocese began putting together what some bishops consider a model for protecting children. Every pastor was given until this spring to conduct background checks on all employees and volunteers who come into contact with children. When an audit by an outside company found that one pastor had not done a criminal background check on two nuns, Bishop Grahmann removed him. Then the auditors found that the files of another parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, did not contain background checks for a number of volunteers and parish employees, and that pastor was also transferred to another parish.
The parishioners at the first church reluctantly accepted the removal, but those at St. Thomas felt the diocese was overreacting and using a simple misunderstanding over paperwork as a pretense for removing a priest with whom the bishop disagreed. They rallied around their pastor, the Rev. Stephen W. Bierschenk, who then notified the bishop that he would appeal the removal order.
The church hierarchy was stunned. "Our question was how, in this kind of milieu, could a pastor be that negligent?" asked Mary Edlund, the chancellor of the diocese. Ms. Edlund said the diocese was trying to send a message that it was serious about enforcing the rules, and she found the parishioners' reaction perplexing.
The parish members who objected to the removal order said they believed the diocese was trying to rebuild its image before the arrival of the other bishops for the meeting here next month of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"They want a feather in their cap to wave around at the other bishops so they can say, `Look at what we've done,' " said Jack Smith, a parishioner for over 50 years.
Any policy the American bishops produce at the conference is subject to approval by the Vatican and there has been indication recently that Vatican officials may disapprove of the response of American bishops to the abuse scandal. An influential canon lawyer at the Vatican has written an article in a Jesuit journal saying that Roman Catholic bishops should not turn over accusations or records of sexual abuse by priests to the civil authorities. The head of a Vatican council also has said the bishops should not be required to turn over records to prosecutors.
At St. Thomas Aquinas, Father Bierschenk told parishioners after several weeks that he would drop his appeal. He was transferred to a much smaller parish this month.
It is the seeming gap between the hierarchy and the laity that most troubles Professor D'Antonio of Catholic University, because it portends trouble for the Catholic Church in the United States. He said that before the bishops try to adopt a national zero-tolerance policy, they should consult the laity. Otherwise, Professor D'Antonio cautioned, the rift between them will only widen.
Parishioners at St. Louis Church in Blue Bayou, La., certainly see it that way. When their pastor, the Rev. Thomas Bouterie, resigned after his photo appeared in a Mardi Gras book, they figured he was pressured to do so for the sake of the diocese, not the good of the parish.
"They don't know how much they hurt us," Loretta Chaisson, a parishioner, said. "It should have been for the parish to decide, and not the bishop."