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Catholic Newspaper Raising Questions Amidst Scandal

Aired March 18, 2002 - 14:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The hierarchy, though, in Boston, meanwhile, insisting neither it nor anybody else in authority is rethinking priestly celibacy. But the Boston Catholic newspaper suggests now many thousands of lay people are, and their questions, the paper says, will not disappear. Our Boston bureau chief, Bill Delaney, now with more.

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BILL DELANEY, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): How Catholics raise their voices, now changing in dioceses around the country, including among the 2 million in the archdiocese of Boston. Nearly all copies of the archdiocese newspaper, "The Pilot", gone, sold out by its usual weekend distribution days, though 100,000 were printed, instead of the usual 25,000.

(on camera): Because, for the first time since the Catholic church here turned over to local district attorneys the names of more than 90 priests accused of sexual misconduct with the young in recent decades, "The Pilot" has called for much more open discussion of issues like priestly celibacy, ordaining women, gay priests. The editorial not condemning traditional church policy, but not defending it, either.

At Boston's Holy Cross Cathedral Sunday, the controversy within the church, obvious outside it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. Would you like to show your prayerful support for the cardinal by wearing a little red sticker?

DELANEY: Support for the status quo, and anger about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... information on how to report child abuse.

DELANEY: Plenty of discontent, hardly and copies of "The Pilot", where there would usually be more than enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw part of "The Pilot." I saw it online, actually. It's a time for dialogue. It's a time for openness, and I think it's the right thing to have an open dialogue on these issues.

DELANEY: Dialogue, though, not to be confused with imminent change. The priest celebrating mass at Holy Cross, Boston's embattled archbishop Bernard Cardinal Law, officially publisher of "The Pilot", said Friday the newspaper's editorial caused confusion, he said, stressing it didn't question celibacy. And church spokesmen discouraged, linking priests' sexuality with sexual scandal.

FR. CHRISTOPHER COYNE, SPOKESMAN, BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE: It's been substantially proven that pedophilia is not conducted in any way to celibacy or to whether one is married or unmarried.

DELANEY: All the issues taken up in "The Pilot" likely to be addressed in months to come by a new 15-member, blue ribbon church panel on clergy sexual abuse, which met in Boston this weekend for the first time. Change, though church critics wonder, how much new questioning is likely to really change how things have been done for more than 1,000 years.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.

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