During its biannual meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted by 228 votes to four to retain its "zero tolerance" policy of dismissing from the ministry all abusive priests.

During its biannual meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted by 228 votes to four to retain its "zero tolerance" policy of dismissing from the ministry all abusive priests. In other decisions, the bishops also agreed to spend $1 million to partially finance a study into how and why the sexual abuse scandal occurred. Critics said that the bishops had yet to take any action against themselves, several of whom failed to remove abusive priests from the ministry.