INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The Catholic lay reform group Voice of the Faithful began its first national meeting in nearly three years Friday with calls for tougher laws to prosecute sexually abusive priests and for a revival of its push to give non-clergy a greater role in the church.

Local organizers of the Roman Catholic group, which formed amid the priest sexual abuse scandal in 2002, traveled to Indianapolis from around the nation for a three-day meeting that began with training sessions in recruiting, strategy and other topics.

About 40 people attended a workshop Friday on legislating to change abuse statutes of limitations so that priests’ young molestation victims can seek justice against them as adults.

Ohio state Sen. Robert F. Spada, who has won partial approval for a bill in Ohio that gives adults 20 years to file charges or sue for abuse that occurred while they were children, said Catholic bishops have actively lobbied against it.

“The bishops in Ohio dug in their heels, and they may have dug them in cement, and now we need jackhammers,” Spada said.

His bill cleared the Ohio Senate this year, but still must win approval in the Ohio House of Representatives, where Spada said it has faced strong opposition from bishops.

Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, encouraged the Voice organizers to work to change the statutes of limitations laws. She said fewer than 2 percent of abusive priests have gone to prison.

A study sponsored by the bishops and released last year found U.S. dioceses had received 10,667 molestation claims since 1950, with accusations against 4 percent of all American clerics who served during that time.

“When they’re in jail, they can’t abuse anybody else,” said Blaine, who claims she was abused by a priest while growing up in Toledo, Ohio.

Since it was formed in 2002 in the Boston area, Voice of the Faithful’s membership has remained generally flat with a claimed roll of about 30,000 people.

Aimee Carevich-Hariramani, who leads a grass roots action initiative within Voice, acknowledged that the group has been plagued by stagnation and lack of coordination during the past one to two years.

“Our leaders are burning out,” Carevich-Hariramani said.

Voice of the Faithful has attracted many critics, including bishops, who claim it has a liberal agenda and takes heretical positions. But its president, Jim Post, said the group remains focused on the sexual abuse scandal, lay participation in the church and clearer financial reporting after abuse-related payouts of more than $1 billion nationwide.

Leaders of the Indianapolis meeting said more than 500 people from more than 30 states had registered for the gathering at the Indiana Convention Center. The meeting is the group’s first national gathering since more than 4,000 people attended a meeting in Boston – the center of the priest sexual abuse scandal that gave rise to the organization – in 2002.

The meeting, called “The Laity Speak: Accountability Now,” is aimed at finding ways to gain greater financial transparency within the church and build accountability among both bishops and lay persons in the some 67 million member U.S. church. Working groups were to tackle those topics Saturday and present recommendations on Sunday.

On Saturday, Illinois appeals court Judge Anne Burke is scheduled to speak on bishops’ accountability. She is a former chairwoman of the National Review Board, a lay watchdog panel created by U.S. bishops.