St. Louis ? Ending a turbulent week marred by public disputes, America’s Roman Catholic bishops professed confidence Saturday that their reforms for dealing with clergy sex abuse were on track.

“My brother bishops and I remain committed to all we promised” in a reform plan approved a year ago, Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a news conference following the conclusion of the bishops’ semiannual meeting.

Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chairman of a committee handling the abuse crisis, told the meeting the hierarchy had made “a monumental effort” to apply the reforms, remove clergy molesters from active ministry and restore confidence among priests and laity.

“Our commitment has not wavered,” Flynn insisted.

The assurances cap a week that began when the chairman of the National Review Board, an independent lay board that monitors the bishops’ performance in following the reforms, accused some of not cooperating and quit. Lobbies of lay Catholics and abuse victims who also gathered in St. Louis during the bishops’ meeting added to the criticism.

Two pivotal projects are under way: a questionnaire bishops are supposed to file with the National Review Board detailing all abuse cases for a national report on the extent of the crisis, and an audit of the 195 dioceses to see if they are complying with the reforms.

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony had led California’s bishops in refusing to file a report answering the questionnaire, saying it would violate the state’s privacy laws. However, the Californians announced Thursday they would encrypt the report, removing any legal problem.

Still, there was little confidence in the bishops among the 200 members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) attending their first national assembly across town.

“Who shall we count on? Three hundred men in black?” asked Mark Serrano, a SNAP leader from Virginia. “Or shall we rely on ourselves and demand change from the civil authorities, and rely on the people in the pews with children who must take the church back?”