Details of the plan were the subject of heated debate among about 300 bishops trying to fashion a national policy to ease the raging sex abuse scandal. A vote on a plan was expected later Friday and nothing was immediately settled.

Priests still could be defrocked — removed from the priesthood — but it would be up to the bishop, acting on the advice of an advisory board comprised mainly of lay people.

Salt Lake City Bishop George Niederauer, a member of the committee that came up with the draft plan, said he felt the plan would still protect children.

Victims were outraged.

"This is akin to telling a street killer in the city we're sending you to the country," said Mark Serrano of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "They will find children to prey upon."

McCarrick said he believed bishops were divided between those who wanted to automatically remove abusers and those who felt some exceptions should be made to avoid punishing elderly priests for allegations that in some cases date back decades.

"The majority of men these men are in their 60s, 70s and 80s," he said.

The shift further away from so-called zero tolerance under which abusers would be automatically defrocked represents a significant shift from the original draft plan released last week.

Two-thirds of the nation's 284 active bishops — 190 clerics — must approve the document for it to pass, according to Monsignor William Fay, general secretary of the bishops' conference. They'll vote by secret paper ballot.

Catholic leaders are struggling to ease a scandal that has seen the dismissal or resignation of 250 accused priests since January. Four bishops have also stepped down and the church has been hit with 300 lawsuits from victims.

"This is a defining moment for us this morning as bishops," Archbishop Harry Flynn said as he opened the debate. "A moment for us to declare our resolve once and for all ... to root out a cancer in our church."

The bishops would ask the Vatican to approve key parts of the plan so they would become binding law in the United States church. Vatican officials had indicated resistance to zero tolerance.

Asked about the bishops' sex abuse policy Friday, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini said there was no immediate comment but that the Vatican would review it.

There is no indication of how long it might take the Vatican to review the policy, since several offices at the Holy See would be involved in scrutinizing it.

Another element of the proposal before the bishops would prohibit dioceses from signing confidentiality agreements with victims in civil lawsuits over sex abuse, unless the victim insists.

Bishops would also report all claims of sexual abuse of a minor to public authorities. Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president of the bishops' conference, acknowledged Thursday that prelates in many cases had failed to report such allegations to law enforcement.

The plan would also set up diocesan review boards to look at complaints and assess the diocese's response. The boards would be made up primarily of lay people.

As the meeting opened Thursday, Gregory bluntly acknowledged that bishops' mistakes helped cause the scandal.

"We are the ones who chose not to report the criminal actions of priests to the authorities, because the law did not require this," he said. "We are the ones who worried more about the possibility of scandal than in bringing about the kind of openness that helps prevent abuse."

Bishops also heard victims tell how pain permeated their lives. Michael Bland of Chicago told of joining the priesthood but leaving after trying to persuade church leaders to take action against his molester.

"The priesthood lost me but kept the perpetrator," said Bland, a psychologist who works with victims in the Chicago Archdiocese.

Gregory once again told victims he was sorry for the pain they suffered, and further asked forgiveness from the "faithful priests" whose reputations have been marred by the misconduct of a few. He also asked bishops who were guilty of abuse to turn themselves in to Vatican authorities.

After the bishops approve the reform policy Friday, they may take up a second document, listing "norms" or key provisions that affect church law in America.

It's those documents that would require Vatican approval to become binding on all U.S. dioceses since each bishop answers to Rome, not the bishops' conference. Otherwise, the policy would remain a mere gentlemen's agreement.

Flynn said there was no time this week to prepare a third document that would spell out details on ousting priests. That will wait until the bishops' November meeting, he said.

Victims and independent caucuses meeting here have pressed for a further, radical demand — that U.S. church leaders lobby Rome to remove bishops who kept abusive clergy on duty while ignoring warnings.

The revised policy under debate did not include that idea.

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