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Pope John Paul II Breaks Silence on Sexual Abuse Within Catholic Church

Aired March 21, 2002 - 12:30   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: From The Vatican today, Pope John Paul II broke his silence on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church here in the U.S. In an annual message to priests worldwide, the pope said the church faces a scandal.

For more on this story and the reaction, Alessio Vinci now joins us by telephone with an update from Rome.

Alessio, good evening.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Bill.

Actually, the letter that the pope wrote to priests around the world was not a direct response to sex abuse cases taking place, especially recently in the United States. It is a letter the pope writes every year to priests around the world right before the Easter holy week, and it is a letter that is 22 pages long, and at the very end, after those 22 pages, the pope briefly addresses the issue of sex abuse without mentioning the name "pedophilia," saying that basically, as priests, we are all personally and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of our brothers, and saying that those sins have casts a dark shadow of suspicion over all of the priests.

Now the contents of the letter was outlined to the media during a news conference here by Cardinal Dario Castion Hollos (ph), who is the head of the congregation for clergy, and basically, he said that while the scandal was adding to the dark suspicion all over the world, he tried to put the whole thing a little bit into context, saying that there are essentially, these kinds of abuses are taking place all over the world, but mainly it is because in the United States, it is so much talked about that the case appears a lot bigger than it actually is.

The cardinal also mentioned a study, for example, from a U.S. university, saying 3 percent of the total U.S. clergy seem to be have a tendency of sexual abuse, and a total of 0.3 percent of the entire clergy. There are about 500,000 priests all around the world. He basically said it is a very limited case if you think of the magnitude of the church.

However, I can tell you, that especially here in Europe and sitting here near The Vatican, you can tell that sexual abuse cases is not just something that is afflicting the United States; there are cases here in Italy, in Sicily. There are cases in France, in Poland, the native country of the holy father, and as well as in Ireland, where the Catholic Church had to pay a settlement of over $100,000,000 to settle sex abuse cases over the last 10 years -- Bill.

HEMMER: Alessio, it has been suggested throughout the week, and through this whole ordeal, in fact, that The Vatican would allow the American Catholic Church to sort out its own mess. Is that still the impression one gathers in Rome today?

VINCI: Well, certainly, there is an attempt by The Vatican, because this -- especially the United States has made so much headlines. There is an attempt by The Vatican to put together, if you will, a centralized strategy on how to deal with this issue, especially because there have been some Vatican sources telling us that in The Vatican, they are not too happy the way the American church has handled the case itself.

On the other hand, while the church is usually trying to control everything here from Rome, there are some examples -- and this is certainly one of them -- where the church has tried to say, OK, you are going to handle the case on your own. You are going to have to figure out what has to be done to solve the problem. But generally speaking, the church would like to deal with this on their own, and try to sort of put together sets of rules, and this has been basically done already a few months back, when the church has sent a letter to all the arch dioceses around the world, basically saying that as soon as you hear a case in your parish, then you have to contact The Vatican right away.

HEMMER: Alessio, thanks. Alessio Vinci, by telephone there in Rome reporting on the latest response there from The Vatican.

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