VATICAN CITY – Important business at the Vatican related to the clergy sex abuse crisis in the American church is on hold during the transition to a new papacy.

Church law that broadened the bishops’ power to discipline predatory priests was under review when Pope John Paul II died, and a Vatican agency had been deciding the fate of some accused clergy. Details of the cases are not known, but they likely include priests who say they are innocent.

The bishops emphasized that church policy remains in effect in America, and the cases of priests and the church law review will be taken up again when the next pope is in place within weeks.

But the Reverend Robert Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils based in Chicago, said the wait was difficult for clergy whose future was in jeopardy.

“I think they’ll be concerned about further delay if they have a case before the tribunal there,” said Rev. Silva, whose organization represents about one-third of the 43,000 American priests. “But the canons are in place, the tribunals are in place and I think it will work.”

Bishop William Skylstad, who had planned long ago to be at the Vatican this week for a visit as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was able to conduct some business, despite the funeral and upcoming conclave.

He stressed that the slowdown was temporary and “very quickly, life will pick up as usual.”

Heads of Vatican offices, called congregations, lose their jobs when a pope dies, except for a few officials who are key to governing between popes. Their staff remain in place, but cannot make major decisions, such as ruling on abuse cases against priests, according to William Tighe, a church history specialist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.

The congregations will resume their full workload after the new pope is selected, Mr. Tighe said.

“Ultimately, they must wait for the Holy Father,” said Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who emphasized that the Vatican work would soon continue despite the break between popes.

In the last three years, hundreds of accused priests and deacons have been removed from church work in America. Many gave up their jobs voluntarily, but others refused, and their cases were sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The American church law that is under review allows bishops to bar a guilty cleric from church work without going through the lengthy Vatican process of removing the man from the priesthood.

That law was due to expire March 1. But two days before the pope died, the American bishops’ conference announced that the Congregation for Bishops had temporarily extended it. American church leaders will consider whether they want any revisions to the policy when they meet in June.

Advocates say some victims have been waiting for years for action to be taken against guilty priests. Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said: “For so many of us, we’ve been kept on hold indefinitely.”