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Vatican V. Cards, One Week Away

Aired April 16, 2002 - 14:17   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: One week from today a highly unusual meeting begins in Rome between Vatican officials and all the U.S. cardinals, to deal with the growing priest sex scandal. CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us with the details -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Kyra. In a brief statement, the Vatican said the aim of this meeting is primarily to restore happiness in the families and restore some trust in the clergy and in the faithful. Now, the meeting is expected to take place Tuesday and Wednesday next week here at the Vatican.

It is primarily expected to be focused on a series of guidelines U.S bishops have been working on for quite some time now. The guidelines would aim at preventing further sex abuse cases to take place in the United States. And guidelines, for example, that would deal with how should the first allegations of sex abuse scandal cases handled by the clergymen in the United States. And how and when should those cases be reported to the police.

And this meeting is an opportunity for Vatican officials here to have a say in writing. Those guidelines will perhaps be made public at a meeting of U.S. bishops in Dallas this coming June. Now, privately, some Vatican officials are telling reporters here that they're not too happy the way the U.S. church has handled the sex abuse scandals as a whole, primarily by talking too much to the press and also by offering money in the past in an attempt to settle those cases before they become public.

To some estimates, the church has paid hundreds of millions of dollars already to settle some of those cases. And Vatican officials are making clear, at least to us, that those funds are not unlimited.

We also understand that as many as 11 cardinals will be -- U.S. cardinals -- will be participating in this meeting. Eight of them will be coming from the United States. Three of them are already here on a permanent basis in Rome. They will be meeting with top Vatican officials at the Vatican.

Of those traveling from the United States, we understand that Cardinal Egan of New York will be coming here, as well as Cardinal Law of Boston, who has been recently under tremendous pressure to resign, over a mishandling of a sex abuse case some years back in the United States when it was a different parish than he is at now. Now, there is no indication at this time anyway that during the meeting next week the cardinal, the U.S. cardinals and the Vatican officials will be addressing the issue of whether the cardinals should be resigning over the sex abuse scandals -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Alessio, word on whether the pope will actually meet with these cardinals himself?

VINCI: There is no specific mention in the statement issued by the Vatican that the pope will actually meet with them. However, Vatican observers here are telling him that it is likely that the pope at some point during this two-days meeting will be meeting either with all the cardinals together or privately, one-on-one, with them.

The pope will certainly not sit in all the -- if you want, in all the talks, all the proceedings that will be going on here for two days. But he will certainly be informed, briefed. And he will have perhaps a chance to talk one-on-one with some of the cardinals involved.

PHILLIPS: Alessio Vinci, thank you. Joining us to offer more insight into next week's Vatican meeting and what it means for the U.S. church, John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter." He's from Charlotte, North Carolina. Good to see you, John.

JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Thanks, Kyra. Good to be with you.

PHILLIPS: Give us a little background here. How rare is this meeting? When was the last time that a meeting like this happened?

ALLEN: Well, the last time was in December of 1996, when the seven residential U.S. cardinals at that time came to Rome to hash out some debates over the use of inclusive language, that is, non gender-specific language in text for prayer and worship. So this kind of thing has happened before.

However, it's unusual, first of all. And certainly the -- the very quick nature of this meeting -- the fact that it's happening in response to a crisis is also quite unusual.

PHILLIPS: Has the pope surprised us here?

ALLEN: I think the main surprise is how quickly this thing came together after what had been a very consistent Vatican line, that this is largely an American problem to solve. That is, that given the peculiarities of the American cultural and legal situation, the Vatican has been taking the position that the fix here is going to have to come from the U.S. church.

I don't think substantively that message has changed. I think what's changed here is the symbolism -- that the Vatican, and above all, the pope, wants to communicate to American Catholics that they get it. They understand this is a serious problem that needs engagement at the highest level. PHILLIPS: How much do you think the pope actually knew about these sex scandals? Do you think that he was maybe left in the dark for a period of time until it reached this point?

ALLEN: Well, I don't think the pope was left in the dark at the level of detail. I know at least two occasions on which he was briefed. One was when the first stories out of Boston began to break. The second was when Bishop O'Connell of Palm Beach resigned under the pressure of these sorts of allegations. And of course the pope had to make the decision to accept his resignation. And so he was briefed at that time.

I think what has taken the pope and some Vatican officials a little bit of time to catch up to is, not so much the facts, but the climate in the American church -- the atmosphere of crisis and the deep sort of unrest that at the grassroots, with the way the bishops have been responding to this problem.

I've been moving across the country in recent days on a book tour and I've been talking to American Catholics in different places. And there's a real sense here that the pope is disengaged. Either because of his illness or simply out of a lack of interest, he has not involved himself in this problem. And I think part of what's going on here is a bit of symbolism and a bit of PR. The Vatican wants American Catholics to know the pope is engaged.

PHILLIPS: Do you think the Vatican sort of underestimated how much this would affect the church and even the American people?

ALLEN: Yes, I think so. I mean, I think that the church has seen these sorts of scandals come and go in the past. There was a real popular revolt in 1995 in Austria, for example, when the cardinal of that church had been accused of sexual misconduct.

In recent weeks we've seen an archbishop in Poland resign under the weight of accusations, which he has denied. We have seen a French bishop with a three-month suspended jail sentence for covering a pedophile priest. We've seen an English bishop resign for the same thing.

So the Vatican has taken a bit of a watch and wait approach to the U.S. situation, thinking that it might well play out like many of these other situations. That is, the problem would eventually resolve itself. And I think what's become clear is that this problem is not going to resolve itself.

There are an awful lot of American Catholics who are frustrated with the way the situation has been handled, and are talking about how they can hold their bishops more accountable. And I think, again, the Vatican felt the need to communicate to American Catholics that they understand. They know what's going on and they're taking up the issue.

PHILLIPS: Do you think the pope will or should come out and make a public apology? That would make quite an impact, wouldn't it? ALLEN: Yes, and I think, again, as I've been talking to American Catholics for the last two weeks, I don't think they want necessarily Rome to come up with a white paper or a 10-point program for fixing this problem. I think they buy the logic that this is something the American church ought to resolve.

I do think what they would like to hear from the pope -- and hear from him directly, not from his aides or in a written document, but in his own voice -- some understanding for the pain that the victims of abuse have experienced. And for the sort of loss of confidence, the crisis of confidence that the broader American church is experiencing. I think that would have a really dramatic psychological, spiritual impact in the present moment.

PHILLIPS: John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter." Thanks so much, John.

ALLEN: Kyra, my pleasure. Thank you.

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