BOSTON, July 20 — Thousands of Roman Catholics flocked today to Boston, to hear speeches and devise a strategy for giving lay people a greater role in the church.
The one-day meeting drew about 4,000 people from Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group founded in the basement of a suburban Boston church as growing evidence showed that Catholic bishops had sheltered priests accused of molesting children.
"We have to gain financial power in this church," said Dr. James E. Muller, a cardiologist and a founder of the group. "We're 99.9 percent of the church and 100 percent of the money."
The scandal erupted in the Boston Archdiocese after revelations in January that Cardinal Bernard F. Law had protected a defrocked priest, John J. Geoghan, even though he knew Mr. Geoghan had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of children.
Cardinal Law has rebuffed calls for his resignation, but not the swelling lay group. He has instructed one of his top lieutenants to maintain discussions with the group, Dr. Muller said.
Voice of the Faithful used the Internet to build a following, and after first meeting in January, the group now claims nearly 20,000 members throughout the United States and in several other countries.
The group says it wants to democratize church operations, which rely heavily on parishioners to pay for things like charity programs and parish schools. An agreement by American bishops in Dallas last month to bar priests accused of abuse from acting as clerics has done little to satisfy the group.
"There will be no donations without representation," Dr. Muller said to a standing ovation at the Hynes Convention Center.
The group distributed envelopes with a goal of raising $500,000 to strengthen the organization, including by hiring staff. Group leaders are also looking at ways to bypass traditional church fund-raising, so that parish collections do not go straight to bishops.
The Rev. Thomas Doyle, who received the group's Priest of Integrity award, said the sexual abuse scandal was a symptom of the church hierarchy's "unbridled addiction to power."
"Today, we're taking back what's been hijacked from us," Father Doyle said. "This is 2002, not 1302. We are not unlettered and ignorant. We are wise."
Several Catholics said they viewed Cardinal Law, the senior American prelate, as a symbol of the Catholic Church's absolutism and entrenched hierarchy.
"Nothing will happen in the Boston Archdiocese until Law leaves," said Kathleen LaGrasta of Bridgewater, Mass.