By Daniel Burke, CNN

(CNN) -- The Vatican has told the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to delay voting on measures to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children from sexual abuse, the president of the conference said in a surprise announcement Monday morning.

In his announcement, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo said he was "disappointed" by the Vatican's decision, which he said he learned of on Sunday afternoon. Pope Francis met with his ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, on Saturday, according to the pope's public schedule.

A Vatican spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pierre is in Baltimore and addressed the body of bishops on Monday morning. He did not mention the Vatican's insistence that the US bishops delay their vote.

Pope Francis will convene a meeting of bishops from around the world in February to address the sexual abuse crisis, which has roiled the church on several continents, including North America, South America and Australia.

Bishops were to debate several measures on abuse crisis

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops had been expected to debate and vote on several "concrete measures to respond to the abuse crisis," according to a news release about the meeting in Baltimore.

Those measures, according to the bishops' conference, included a hotline to report bishops accused of abuse or mishandling abuse cases, standards of conduct for bishops and "protocols for bishops resigned or removed because of abuse."

The bishops can still debate those measures, but they will not vote on them this week, following the Vatican's intervention.