Despite Bishop William Murphy's edict banning a fledgling lay group from meeting on church property, the Long Island Voice of the Faithful drew a standing-room-only crowd of 600 people to a Thursday night meeting, including priests, nuns, deacons and hundreds of other Catholics from throughout Long Island.

"A lot of people told me, 'That's why I'm here,'" said Dan Bartley, 41, of Hauppauge, who helped organize the meeting at the Wyandanch Youth Center. It "was kind of like throwing kerosene on the fire," acknowledged one older man who asked not to be named.

Voice of the Faithful was formed seven months ago in Boston in response to the priest sex abuse scandals, and has since grown to more than 25,000 members in 42 states. Besides supporting victims of sex abuse and priests of integrity, the group seeks greater lay participation in the church.

A spokeswoman for the bishop declined to comment on the gathering. Murphy has chosen not to meet with representatives or to elaborate on his reasons for banning the group, beyond saying that the best forum for people to express their concerns was a diocesan synod planned for 2007.

Group facilitator Sheila Peiffer of Southampton, who met with the bishop as a private individual, said he told her that he would encourage greater grass-roots participation by asking pastors to hold listening sessions, and to report back what they heard.

But to many attending the meeting at the Wyandanch Youth Center, that was not sufficient.

"I dare say that had parents been involved in the governance of the church, we would not be in the place we are now," said Maura O'Brien, one of several founding members of the group who traveled from Boston. O'Brien, who grew up in Syosset, said that no parent would ever have approved returning a sexually abusive priest to work with children.

The crowd offered loud applause to a young man who gave his name only as "Bob," a former priest who told how he had been abused as an adolescent attending St. Pius X Seminary Prep School."It's been going on for hundreds of years," the man said. "And until we come to grips with that reality, it will continue."

The group brainstormed ways to increase lay involvement and threw a total of $4,000 into baskets passed to help defray the costs of event insurance and chair rental. They communicated their gratitude to the unidentified priests listening to their concerns with a sustained standing ovation. "I came to listen and to pray," the Rev. Gerry DiSpigno of Maria Regina in Seaford said later.