c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops will gather here next week (Nov. 15-18) for their annual fall meeting and, for the first time in nearly two years, are not expected to be consumed by the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

“We can’t and we won’t (forget the scandal) but there are other things that we need to do and other issues that are important that are part of our responsibility as bishops,” said Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., the outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops are expected to elect their vice president, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., as their new president. Elections are scheduled to name a new vice president who will take the top post in three years.

The bishops have already begun a scheduled evaluation of sex abuse reforms that were adopted in 2002. Neither Gregory nor Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the bishops’ sexual abuse committee, expect major changes when the bulk of the review is handled at a meeting next summer in Chicago.

Gregory said he will push to maintain the church’s policy of “zero tolerance” toward abusive priests. “I have not stepped back from that at all,” he said.

The bishops will likely consider whether to proceed with a third annual audit to measure if dioceses are complying with the 2002 reforms, and whether to proceed with plans to collect annual data on new abuse cases and legal settlements.

The bishops will be asked to give their formal approval to a new ecumenical body, Christian Churches Together in the USA, which hopes to unite Catholics, Pentecostals and Evangelicals, mainline and Orthodox churches and black churches for the first time.

If given approval, the bishops will be asked to help fund the new group with at least $12,000 each year.

The bishops will also consider a new “pastoral initiative on marriage” that would begin next January and extend through at least 2007, when a pastoral letter would be expected.

In other routine issues, the bishops will vote on an education program for Catholic adults, which also needs a stamp of approval from the Vatican, and whether to create a special committee on needs in Africa.

Activists from the liberal group Call to Action plan to present 10,000 letters from lay Catholics asking the bishops to include a clergy shortage on the agenda of a Vatican conference next year. Members of the gay-rights groups Soulforce and Dignity/USA also plan peaceful demonstrations at the bishops’ downtown hotel.

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