DALLAS -- The nation's Roman Catholic bishops approved a mandatory policy yesterday on clergy sexual abuse that would bar priests who ever molested children from ministry but would not necessarily remove them from the priesthood.

The policy falls short of the zero tolerance called for by sexual abuse victims and many lay Catholics and church leaders. It appeared to be a compromise between bishops who wanted to take a hard line and those who favored compassion for elderly priests who might have been involved in an isolated case of abuse decades ago.

The policy is tougher than an earlier draft that would have left individual bishops the option of retaining priests who had committed a single offense in years past. And because the policy is intended to be binding, it's a big change from voluntary disciplinary rules the bishops have used.

Effective immediately, the policy says, "For even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor -- past, present or future -- the offending priest or deacon will be permanently removed from ministry."

The policy does offer some priests who are ill or elderly the possibility of remaining a priest but living a "life of prayer and penance" in a controlled environment such as a monastery or what some bishops described as a "safe house."

The bishops amended the document yesterday to add that such priests would not be permitted to offer Mass publicly, wear priestly garb or present themselves publicly as priests.

Defrocking a priest would be left to the discretion of each bishop, acting on the recommendation of a lay review panel.

The policy, titled a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, was approved 239-13. Before it can become binding, the Vatican must approve it.

After the vote, the bishops began applauding, and the group gradually came to its feet.

"The sum total of those actions means that bishops will not tolerate even one act of sexual abuse of a minor," said Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "There will be severe consequences for any act of sexual abuse. No free pass. No second chances. No free strike.

"For those who think or say that this is not zero tolerance, then they have not read it carefully."

Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, who was a strong advocate of zero tolerance, said he is satisfied with the new policy.

"I think the essence of what we were looking for is there," he said. The bottom line, he said, is that anyone who would harm a child will be forever barred from ministry in the church.

Representatives of abuse victims were more skeptical.

"Is it enough? We don't believe so," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Will it be implemented? We simply have to see. History has shown us we simply can't take these men at their word."

Other abuse victims were disappointed that the policy would allow abusers to remain priests.

"I'm a therapist," said Peter Isely, a SNAP representative and abuse victim. "If there is any sexual contact with a patient, I lose my license. ... Do you lose your ordination to the priesthood? No. [The bishops] are going to have to explain that."

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, editor of America, a national Catholic weekly, said that under the new guidelines, an abuser effectively loses his ability to function as a priest.

"The exemption is gone -- past, present and future," he said. "He can't wear a Roman collar. He can't say Mass. He can't hear confessions. He is no longer in the powerful position he abused."

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of the St. Paul-Minneapolis diocese, who led the committee that drafted the policy, called yesterday's vote an opportunity "for us to root out a cancer on our church."

"This is a defining moment for us ... as bishops," he said.

Among its provisions, the new charter bans confidentiality agreements as part of legal settlements except for "grave and substantial reasons" requested by the victim.

It requires bishops to report all allegations of abuse involving minors to civil authorities and pledges the cooperation of bishops with authorities in reporting allegations involving those who are no longer minors.

Addressing calls for greater accountability of the bishops, the charter establishes a national Office of Child and Youth Protection, which will prepare an annual report assessing how each diocese and bishop implements the new policy.

A national review board of 15 to 18 people that will be led by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating will oversee that office.

The bishops spent much of the morning and early afternoon poring over the wording and focusing on defining specifics of the new policy.

Several bishops were concerned about the requirement that bishops report any allegation to civil authorities, worried that priests might become targets for unfounded accusations.

Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Ill., said that canon law, the law of the Catholic church, might prohibit bishops from reporting allegations against priests they did not believe were credible.

"When we do that, we rat out our priests, and we're not allowed to do that."

Cardinal Avery Dulles, a prominent Jesuit theologian, said he believes the policy would turn the relationship between a bishop and his priests from paternal to adversarial. "The priest can no longer go to the bishop as a father with confidence with a problem he has," he said. "He has to be very, very careful what he says because the bishop is going to throw him out of the ministry for life."

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles noted he had two "unfounded allegations" made against him in recent months. "I welcomed police intervention because they got on it right away and dealt with it."

The charter's definition of sexual abuse, which it spells out as sexual "contact or interactions between a child and adult," was also the subject of considerable debate.

Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Dallas, a member of the drafting committee, said the wording was intended to include acts by a priest that did not specifically involve touching, such as showing pornography to a child. The standard would be "whether a child is being used as an object of sexual gratification," he said.

But Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe was concerned that the definition was too broad: "What has been horrifying the nation is a priest who has had sexual genital contact with a minor and harmed them in some way."

If a misinterpreted hug becomes enough to remove a man from the priesthood, he said, "that doesn't seem reasonable."

Keeler aide quits

Raymond P. Kempisty, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and spokesman for Cardinal William H. Keeler, resigned earlier this week, Keeler said yesterday.

Kempisty, who has served as communications director for the archdiocese since 1997, had the task of defending Keeler and the church during the past several months of the church's sexual abuse crisis. The scrutiny became particularly intense after the controversy around the shooting of the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell. A man who accused the priest of molesting him has been indicted.

Keeler said that although Kempisty resigned, the decision was mutual. With the initiatives that will be introduced in Baltimore with the adoption of the U.S. bishops' new policy on clergy sexual abuse, "it seemed like a good time for a change in personnel," Keeler said.

Earlier this year, Kempisty became the first layman in Baltimore to hold the position of chancellor, a job that involves fielding inquiries to the archdiocese.

- John Rivera