WASHINGTON -- Responding to an exhortation from their conference president that the sex abuse scandal not "destroy our communion with one another in the Lord," members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opened their fall meeting Nov. 11 with preliminary discussion of revised sex abuse norms and nearly a dozen other documents.

With the prospect of war with Iraq looming, the bishops agreed Nov. 12 to quickly draft a strong statement reiterating their just-war perspectives on a possible war.

A Sept. 13 letter to President Bush from the USCCB president raising moral questions about war with Iraq is now outdated, Bishop Walter F. Sullivan of Richmond, said in a discussion about a new statement during the bishops' fall general meeting in Washington. The new statement was to be prepared for approval by the full body of bishops by the end of their meeting Nov. 14.

In his presidential address, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., said the disunity in the church caused by the scandals must be overcome. "We have witnessed greater fracture and discord than unity," he said.

But he said the bishops "must never allow the particular positions that we have taken on such a serious issue or even the mistakes that we have made in understanding and addressing it to destroy our communion with one another in the Lord."

Repeating the bishops' commitment to victims of clergy sex abuse, he said, "We will not step back from our compassion for those who have been harmed, or from our determination to put into place policies that will protect children."

In addition to Bishop Gregory's talk, the first morning of the Nov. 11-14 meeting was devoted to first looks at documents on domestic violence, abortion, Hispanic ministry, stewardship, poverty, liturgical and financial matters, and border concerns with Mexico.

"Strangers No Longer," a pastoral letter on migration that was also under consideration by the Mexican bishops during the same week, will be "the first-ever statement issued jointly by two national bishops' conferences," said Auxiliary Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Migration. Approval of the letter was expected Nov. 12.

Bishop Carlos Talavera Ramirez of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, a member of the Mexican bishops' commission for pastoral care of migrants, attended the Washington meeting, as did another foreign guest, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Lviv, Ukraine.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, introducing "A Place at the Table," described as a "pastoral reflection" on poverty, said it represents "a recommitment to overcoming poverty in our country and around the world."

"As we reassure the faithful" about how the church operates, he said, "we should also be reminding people that the church continues to be involved in justice ..., the Catholic Church is continuing to take care of the poor."

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said a proposed statement marking the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision on abortion "celebrates the way our culture is turning away from abortion and reaches out to those considering it."

Those and other documents were scheduled for debate and vote by the bishops later in the meeting.

Various aspects of the sex abuse crisis dominated the first afternoon, with Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago reporting on the work of a joint Vatican-U.S. commission that revised the canonical sexual abuse norms approved by the bishops last June in Dallas when they adopted a national "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."

Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis reported on the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, which he heads, and Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego, who heads a task force on episcopal oversight regarding sex abuse, presented a plan to improve the accountability of bishops in this area. The bishops agreed to vote on the plan later in the meeting.

Saying the proposed norms were strengthened during the Vatican-U.S. consultation, Cardinal George said "the Holy See shared our goals" -- to protect minors from abuse in the church, to reach out to victims of abuse and to remove permanently from ministry any priest who has ever admitted or been found guilty of sexually abusing a minor.

Among strengthening factors in the revised norms, he said, were the explicit inclusion of priests and deacons in religious orders and the opening up of the possibility of church trials to remove priests even if the church's statute of limitations for trying the crime has run out. The Vatican told the bishops to apply for a waiver of the statute for those cases otherwise too old to prosecute under the law.

In a unanimous voice vote, the bishops authorized their Committee on Education to update a 1990 statement in support of Catholic elementary and secondary schools. The committee plans to bring a new statement on the topic to the bishops at their November 2004 meeting.

Also approved on the first day were a $53.1 million USCCB budget for 2003 and a 3.5 percent increase for 2004 in the assessment on dioceses to support the conference's work. The bishops also approved 2003 plans for USCCB committees, offices and support units; goals and objectives for 2004-2006; and requests for budgetary exceptions in 2003.

The exceptions included more than $3 million in spending from the bishops' General Reserve Fund for costs associated with the National Child Protection Office, National Review Board and two studies mandated by the charter.

Contributing to this story were Jerry Filteau, Patricia Zapor and Agostino Bono in Washington.