Kansas City, Mo ? If the Rev. Hoa Nguyen walks into a restroom and finds himself alone with a young boy, he turns around and walks out. He’s not always sure how to react when children hug him.

But the Rev. Larry Dowling, 50, of Chicago, says some parishioners intentionally send their children up to him for a hug, as a sign of their support.

Roman Catholic parish priests meeting in Kansas City this week said the sex abuse scandal battering their church has resulted in both unearned suspicion and strong support from their parishioners.

“I am always aware that I am vulnerable,” said Nguyen, 40, of Burkburnett, Texas. “But I just have to carry that fear around and be vulnerable if I want to minister to all my parishioners.”

Priests attending the National Federation of Priests’ Councils meeting said the scandal offended and embarrassed them, but it also made them more committed to their calling.

“It does make you feel a little built guilty, like you in some way have some responsibility,” said the Rev. Christopher Robinson, a professor at DePaul University in Chicago. “I felt like I should apologize to everyone. And I do apologize sometimes.”

The Rev. Carl Collins, 42, of Golden Meadow, La., said the scandal forced him to remember why he became a priest.

“I did worry about how people looked at me,” Collins said. “But I also was forced to tap back into why I became a priest. And I remembered that being a priest is what I am all about. It actually re-energized me.”

Many priests said the scandal also has left them torn between compassion for the abuse victims and concern for their fellow priests — both abusers and those who have been falsely accused.

The Rev. Robert McCann, 49, of Oakland, Calif., said the current policies were a quick fix, mostly a reaction to the media, and he’s glad they will be reviewed again in two years.

“We must always balance the feeling that one victim is too many with the fact that all sorts of false accusations can apply,” he said. “If a priest is falsely accused in the press, it’s very hard for him to get his reputation back.”

The hierarchy’s “poor handling” of the crisis caused him to wonder for awhile if he could continue working for the church, McCann said.

“After the initial shock and upset, it did eventually fortify me to be the best priest I can be,” he said. “You realize that a minority of priests are guilty and helping one another through the crisis is just one more challenge of ministry we have to deal with.”

The Rev. Robert Silva, president of the Priests’ Councils organization, suggested that productive ministries should be found for priests who abuse children, rather than dismissing them from the church.

Dowling said he does not expect the public to accept that idea anytime soon. But he said allowing the men to return to ministry is in line with the church’s teachings of reconciliation and redemption.