Pope John Paul II has summoned US cardinals and church leaders to Rome next week to discuss the paedophilia crisis in the Church.
A Vatican official said those at the talks would include Bishop Wilton Gregory, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Monsignor William Fay, the Conference's general secretary.
The official said the meeting would begin early next week and would also be attended by senior Vatican officials. He said he did not know how long it would last.
The US Catholic Church is mired in a controversy over sexual abuse of children by priests that has seriously undermined its moral authority.
The scandal has been concentrated on Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law said last week he had no plans to resign despite growing calls for him to step down for the good of the church.
Cardinal Law (70), who heads the fourth-largest Catholic diocese in the United States, is accused of transferring priests known to have sexually abused children from parish to parish in the Boston area instead of defrocking them.