The Most Rev. Michael PfeiÂfer, bishop of San Angelo, said he met with FLDS women and children at Fort Concho last week not to "disturb anything but to offer a listening ear.

"They were very reserved, very quiet, very concerned," he said.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services removed 416 children from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado after receiving a report that a 16-year-old girl had been physically and sexually abused. The girl has not yet been identified among the children, who are being kept at historic Fort Concho and the Wells Fargo Pavilion in San Angelo. Officials say 139 mothers voluntarily accompanied the children from the ranch.

Pfeifer said that he explained he was there to listen to and pray with the women and soon a huge group gathered around him.

"So many said they want to go home," he said, and he told them, "We're working on that.

"There is a lot of unrest about what is going to happen, a lot of uncertainty."

Pfeifer led an interfaith service Saturday when about 50 people asked God to comfort the splintered FLDS community and bring wisdom and compassion to those who must now decide the children's fate.

"People have to make hard decisions about this," he said. A hearing on the children's custody is scheduled for Thursday.

Pfeifer said that the women are aware of the process under way, but are worried about how it will turn out.

Like others, Pfeifer said his hope is that state authorities are able to keep together the family units that are there, Pfeifer said.

"That is my prayer," he said.

Stephen Smith, an internal medicine physician in San Angelo, is part of the medical team at Fort Concho. He is wrestling with the judgments being made about the FLDS, given what he has seen - and considering abuse remains widespread in the world outside the ranch.

"In my opinion, we had to go do something about them so we didn't have to keep looking at our own behavior," he said, pointing out that "We didn't round up all the Catholic schools when we found out about their abuse."

He said most of the women and children are in good health - healthier than most people.

The women he has met at the compound are "quite content with their own culture.

"Even though I don't agree with their lifestyle, I got the impression that in their own little world it made sense," he said.

The children seem happy, laughing and playing like children everywhere.

As he met with one mother and her 8-year-old, the boy said he knew a song that Smith did not know.

The boy began to sing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" - and, to his surprise, Smith joined in. "He was really amazed I knew it," he said.

Another woman he met was quite distressed because two daughters had been taken away for interviews.

"She had no idea whether they were going to be returned or not," he said.

While the women say they are being well cared for, they also say they want to go home, Smith said.

"The mothers seem to believe they are going to be able to go back to the ranch," he said, adding that one told him about the 1953 Short Creek raid in Arizona.

One little boy, Smith said, told him, "I just want this to be over and go home."

brooke@sltrib.com