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DALLAS (AP) — At an extraordinary meeting on the sex scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic church, U.S. bishops took a step toward a zero-tolerance policy for pedophile priests after scrapping a proposal that would have kept some abusive clergy in the ministry. Bishops met in a closed-door session until late Thursday as they crafted a plan that Catholic leaders hope will end a crisis that has seen the dismissal or resignation of 250 accused priests since January. Four bishops have also stepped down. Final legislation was to be approved Friday — progress considered unprecedented for a church that often debates issues for years. AP/L.M. Otero [17K] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last week's initial draft proposed that a priest who abused one minor in the past could be reassigned to a parish, though only if he underwent counseling, was examined by a review board, agreed to supervision and publicly disclosed his misconduct. Future acts of molestation would mean expulsion — an idea expected to be retained Friday. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the two-strikes-and-you're-out ``language is unacceptable. That sounds as if you can do it once and no one would pay attention to you.'' Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, head of the drafting committee, indicated this left two options: Strict zero tolerance — ousting any priest found guilty of abuse — or a slightly less strict policy of the sort advocated by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. McCarrick has suggested allowing some older men guilty of one past misdeed to remain technically in the priesthood but living in close confinement, kept out of parishes and barred from celebrating public Masses. Bishops open abuse conference Windows Media RealVideo Thursday's meeting came after a highly dramatic opening in which Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Bishops, bluntly acknowledged that bishops' mistakes helped cause the scandal. While Gregory has repeatedly apologized for the bishops' role in the crisis, his remarks Thursday were perhaps his most direct yet. ``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.