WASHINGTON - The leader of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops told his colleagues yesterday that it is time to move beyond the sexual abuse crisis that has consumed their attention for the past year and to get on with the work of the church.

In a speech opening a four-day meeting of church leaders, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the abuse scandal has fractured relations between bishops and lay people as well as between bishops and priests. He called for reconciliation.

But he also excoriated some critics, both inside and outside the church, who he said have used the sexual abuse crisis to advance their own agendas - apparently referring to groups such as those who support gay rights, a married priesthood and female priests.

"There are those outside the church who are hostile to the very principles and teachings that the church espouses, and have chosen this moment to advance the acceptance of practices and ways of life that the church cannot and will never condone," Gregory said.

"One cannot fail to hear in the distance - and sometimes very nearby - the call of the false prophet," he said. "We bishops need to recognize this call and to name it clearly for what it is."

Shift in emphasis

Gregory's speech seemed to indicate a major shift in emphasis since June, when he opened the bishops' meeting in Dallas with criticism - and apologies - for how the church and fellow bishops had handled the abuse crisis, which has led to the removal of more than 300 priests since January.

Yesterday, his tone was more defensive, even defiant, as he took on what he called unfair criticism of the church and its priests - the "overwhelming majority," he pointed out, are "faithful servants of the Lord."

"Priests today too often are being unfairly judged by the misdeeds of other priests, men often long departed from ministry or even deceased," Gregory said.

Church critics, who have denounced changes to the sexual abuse policy approved in Dallas, greeted the bishops last night with a candlelight protest as they left their hotel near Capitol Hill to celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Holding candles and brandishing signs urging tougher action against sexual abusers, as well as respect for the rights of gays and lesbians in the church, the demonstrators sang a chorus of the protest standard, "We Shall Overcome."

While the bishops focused exclusively on the church's response to the abuse crisis at their meeting in Dallas, this session is planned to tackle a much broader agenda, including major statements on domestic violence, migration, poverty and abortion.

But the abuse policy, which is to be debated and voted on tomorrow, continued to occupy the bishops' attention as they tried to answer its critics. The policy was reworked by a joint commission of Vatican officials and U.S. bishops after it failed last month to win approval from Rome.

Statute of limitations

Critics, including groups representing sexual abuse victims, have charged that the revisions weakened the policy the bishops adopted in June. They point in particular to the reinstatement of a 10-year statute of limitations on abuse claims, requiring victims molested as youths to come forward by the time they turn 28.

The bishops asserted yesterday that the changes make the policy stronger.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who served on the joint commission, said the only major change demanded by the Vatican was to insist on church trials for accused priests, instead of letting bishops remove them administratively.

"Everything that was there [in the Dallas document] remains there," George said, with the exception of church tribunals for accused priests.

The revised policy, the bishops noted, includes a provision requiring bishops to seek a waiver from the 10-year time limit on abuse claims when they encounter a case that has exceeded it. Even if the Vatican denies the request, they said, a bishop has other administrative options for keeping a sexual abuser out of ministry.

"There is a fear I've heard expressed, 'Well some of these men are going to go back into ministry,'" said Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Dallas. "There is no way that anyone who has even one act of sexual abuse is going to be in ministry."

But advocates for sexual abuse victims - who contend the revisions tend to protect priests and exclude lay people from reviewing allegations - were not reassured.

"There's no denying they have taken mandatory out of this policy in several places and replaced it with voluntary," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "If a bishop has one option or six options to remove a priest, he still fundamentally makes the choice himself."

Responding to demands from abuse victims for accountability, the bishops yesterday agreed to consider a statement pledging to hold themselves accountable to their sexual abuse policy.

"A lot of people wonder to whom do bishops answer?" said Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore. "It looks like we're getting ready to say we answer to each other, we support each other, we challenge each other."