1.   All these questions will make the Catholic bishops conference next week in Dallas one of the most closely watched religion news events of the year.

2.   Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia said that he doubted the bishops conference would approve opening their diocesan records to an external audit.

3.   Giordano said the Italian bishops conference had no written procedures on sexual abuse of children, which he suggested would be needed only in case of a multifaceted scandal.

4.   Hunter, who runs a monthly SNAP support group in Kansas City, said he expected to hear from more victims as a result of the bishops conference.

5.   In an unusual arrangement, Sony will promote the CD in cooperation with local Catholic bishops conferences, which will share the royalties.

6.   In meetings, Skylstad and Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the bishops conference, tried to describe the despair felt an ocean away.

7.   It also came two years after the bishops conference rejected a more sweeping and much-revised pastoral letter on women that had been dominated by conservative clerics.

8.   Nonetheless, the general counsel for the bishops conference, Mark Chopko, says there is no such coordinated effort.

9.   The bishops conference says a main goal is to gain Vatican support for measures on dealing with abusive priests to be adopted at their meeting in June.

10.   The cardinals and the bishops conference come in with different emphases.