WASHINGTON ÷ The Roman Catholic Church should defrock any priest who sexually abuses a child in the future, and those who molested one time in the past could continue in the ministry under certain conditions, a church panel recommended yesterday.

Under the plan, clergymen who victimized more than one child in the past also would be removed and all such violations would have to be reported to authorities.

The proposals are in a long-awaited report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, whose plan will be put to a vote when bishops from around the country meet June 13-15 in Dallas.

The committeeâs report leaves the bishops open to attack from those who want a sweeping zero tolerance policy, meaning the removal of all past abusers and those caught in the future. Debate over ousting errant clergy will likely be intense at the Dallas conference.

The committeeâs plan contains apologies to victims and emphasizes the bishopsâ commitment to reform.

ãThe sexual abuse of children and young people by some priests and bishops, and the ways in which these crimes and sins were too often dealt with by bishops, have caused enormous pain, anger and confusion,ä the panel wrote.

ãWe are profoundly sorry for the times when we have deepened its pain by what we have done or by what we have failed to do.ä

A senior Vatican official said the Vatican is not preparing a public response to the committeeâs recommendation, as it will await decisions by the full bishops assembly at the Dallas meeting. Those decisions will then be sent to the Vatican for approval, said the official, who asked that his name not be used.

Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., said, ãWe now have a very clear agenda from which the American bishops can address the paramount issue of clerical sexual misconduct with minors.ä

The Rev. Thomas Doyle, one of the most active priests in aiding victims, said the documentâs contrition over bishopsâ misdeeds ãis certainly extraordinary, given the way in which church bodies respond to crisis situations.ä

ãIt is a new beginning,ä he said, if the sorrow proves sincere and the charter, especially outreach to victims, is honored. But ãthere have been so many promises made,ä he cautioned. If even ãone or two bishopsä continue to treat victims with hostility or let lawyers pursue hardball tactics, Doyle said, ãthat will blow the bottom out of any credibility they wish to restore.ä

Russell Shaw of Washington, D.C., a layman who was the U.S. bishopsâ media spokesman for 18 years, said he likes the proposal ãa lot more than I expected. Iâm really encouraged.ä He said he feels itâs important that the bishops go beyond immediate remedies to rethink lay membersâ participation in decision-making and have a commission investigate what went wrong.