A panel of Catholic bishops issued proposed guidelines yesterday that would defrock clergy who sexually abuse minors in the future or have been repeat offenders, but leave open the possibility that someone who committed a single offense in the past could remain a priest.

That exception is likely to be the most controversial of the recommendations, which include prohibiting confidentiality agreements in lawsuit settlements, reporting all abuse allegations to civil authorities and appointing lay boards to consider cases of priests who committed a single offense.

Church officials have been reluctant to ban every priest accused of abuse from ministry because of Catholic teaching on forgiveness of sin.

"We are deeply sympathetic to feelings of victims/survivors who have experienced years of suffering due to sexual abuse," said Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chairman of the committee that drafted the guidelines, at a news briefing yesterday.

"But treatment - and the power of Christian conversion - has made a difference in some cases."

The exception was denounced yesterday by Baltimore's Cardinal William H. Keeler, who said he will advocate a "zero tolerance" policy when the 300 U.S. bishops debate the proposed guidelines next week in Dallas.

"The committee appears to be looking for a way to put adequate safeguards on someone returning to ministry after having committed a single act of abuse," Keeler said at a news conference at his downtown offices.

"It's a path we tried to follow here some years ago, and we found that it just doesn't work."

Keeler later said he was referring to the case of the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell, who was shot last month.

Dontee D. Stokes, the man charged in the incident, has said he was abused as a youth by Blackwell, as have two other men.

The proposed Charter for the Protection of Young People released yesterday expressed contrition for the sex abuse scandal.

"From the depths of our hearts, we express great sorrow and profound regret for what the Catholic people have had to endure," the 12-page draft says.

It characterized the damage caused by sexual abuse as "devastating and long-lasting."

"We are profoundly sorry for the times when we have deepened its pain by what we have done or by what we have failed to do," it said.

The draft would make mandatory several additional policies:

Each diocese must have a review board composed mostly of laypeople not employed by the church to assess allegations and make recommendations to the bishop.

Dioceses must report all accusations to civil authorities. They "must cooperate with proper authorities" in reporting abuse in cases where the victim is no longer a minor.

Dioceses will not enter into confidentiality agreements when they reach legal settlements "except for grave and substantial reasons brought forward by the victim."

The bishops will establish a national Office for Child and Youth Protection to provide assistance and accountability to individual dioceses in implementing the new policies. The work of that office will be monitored by a national review board appointed by the president of the bishops' conference.

The charter advocates the immediate removal of a priest who admits to or is credibly accused of a single act of sexual abuse of a minor. Laicization, the church process by which a man is removed from the priesthood, will be initiated "even without the consent of the cleric."

Because laicization is a cumbersome legal process, made even more difficult if a priest refuses to cooperate, the bishops are seeking approval from the Vatican for a streamlined administrative procedure.

But there is disagreement among the nation's bishops about what to do with priests who have decades-old allegations of sexual abuse coming to light now.

Some Vatican officials, including Pope John Paul II, say that Catholic tradition requires the church to leave open the possibility for reconciliation and repentance for priests who commit abuse.

The committee proposed leeway for priests who have committed only one offense, received psychological treatment and not been diagnosed as pedophiles.

Their cases would be evaluated by a diocesan review board, which would make a recommendation to the bishop.

The priest would not be placed in a ministry that allows him access to children or young people, and the offense would have to be disclosed to those who the priest lives with and serves.

Flynn, chairman of the seven-member panel, said he realized the proposal would generate controversy and predicted it "will be the most closely debated item at our meeting."

"In the feedback that we received, there appeared to be a large enough minority of bishops, expert observers and people in the pew who wanted some flexibility that we felt this possibility had to go to the full body" of bishops, said Flynn.

He pointed out that the draft might be revised at next week's meeting.

The proposal, which must be approved by two-thirds of the bishops, must be submitted to the Vatican for approval.

In recent weeks, Vatican officials have expressed misgivings about mandatory reporting of allegations, psychological testing and informing new parishioners about past allegations of abuse.

Keeler said it was his experience with Blackwell that convinced him only a blanket zero tolerance policy will work.

Keeler allowed Blackwell to return to his West Baltimore parish in 1993, over the objection of his lay review board, after the priest was accused of abusing Stokes, a teen-ager in his parish.

Blackwell was removed from the parish in 1998 after another man accused him of sexual abuse, dating back two decades.

"In this particular case, an allegation of prior misconduct of which we had no knowledge surfaced after the individual had been returned to ministry," Keeler said.

"For this reason, at our meeting in Dallas, I shall advocate a policy that says one act of child abuse is one act too many."

Keeler's stand drew faint praise from David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests.

"We are always encouraged when we hear the words 'zero tolerance.' But talk is cheap. And historically, many bishops have fallen short when it comes to action," he said.

" ... I'm hopeful that Catholic laypeople will continue to push very hard for real zero tolerance ... not arbitrary distinctions about dates and diagnoses."

The Rev. Gary Hayes, president of Linkup, another advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, said the greatest shortcoming of the draft is that "there [is] no zero tolerance for bishops who ignore or fail to implement the policies."

"I think they should be forced to resign, the same penalty as they want to give the pedophiles," said Hayes, a Catholic priest who was abused by two priests as a youth.