Catholic bishops' leader reflects on abuse crisis

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops will elect a president next week during its regular meeting in Washington, and Gregory, who has completed his three-year term, will be relieved of answering for the misdeeds of priests and the misjudgments of his fellow bishops.

''From a spiritual point of view, it drove me to my knees," Gregory said. ''I used the sacramental life of the church to buttress me. Celebrating Eucharist and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation probably have never meant more to me as a believer than they did in the past three years. As I stood at the altar, I knew how completely I depended upon God's strength."

Expectations for Gregory were high when he took office in November 2001. He was the first black president of the conference, and his election was seen by black Catholics as the long-awaited recognition of their membership in the church. Diana Hayes, a black Catholic and theologian at Georgetown University, compared it to ''having an African-American president of the United States."

But scandal soon eclipsed his historic elevation to leadership.

What started in January 2002 as a crisis over one molester priest in the Archdiocese of Boston quickly enveloped the entire church. Gregory, from his small, rural diocese in southern Illinois, had to defend a Catholic hierarchy to an increasingly hostile laity and general public. A few months later, when the bishops gathered in Dallas under intense public pressure to address the crisis, it fell to Gregory to apologize to victims and acknowledge the failures of church leaders.

He led the bishops through nothing short of a revolution in their approach to abuse. They now have a binding policy on how to respond to allegations that includes barring offenders from church work and a national lay watchdog panel to help enforce the plan.