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CNN Sunday Morning

Cardinal Bernard law Makes First Public Appearance in Two Weeks

Aired April 21, 2002 - 10:20   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Boston today, Cardinal Bernard Law makes his first public appearance in two weeks.

CNN's Michael Okwu is live in Boston with the latest - Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good morning. Just until moments ago, things were relatively quiet here at the south end in front of the cathedral of the holy cross. But the protesters surely enough have started to show up here, along with lots of other celebrants here who have come here to celebrate mass with Bernard Law this morning. And as you mentioned, this is his first public -- really, his first public appearance in the last two weeks or so.

He -- it's a very special mass this morning. It's called the jubilee mass. And it essentially is an opportunity for those people ho have been married for many years to celebrate special anniversaries. And in a manner of speaking, Bernard Law himself has been married to the archdiocese now for close to two decades.

But again, there have been many in the community who have been calling for him to break off that tie, essentially calling for him to resign, following the way the archdiocese and he dealt with two pedophile priests, Father John Geoghan and Paul Shanley (ph). These were two priests, among the two of them, who are accused of essentially sexually molesting well over 130 young people.

The way the archdioceses dealt with that even though they knew there were allegations against them, was essentially to shuffle them from parish to parish and all around the country. Now in the last two weeks the public outcry has reached a crescendo. On April 8th documents about Reverend Shanley became public. And they remain known public, and the same day, the archdiocese released a statement, essentially aimed at placating the public. And then, of course, the public outcry grew. Rumors began circulating that the Cardinal was, in fact, going to resign. And those rumors turned out not to be the case.

On April 12th, the Arch Bishop sent a letter to other priests around the country and within the Archdiocese saying essentially that he was staying in the Archdiocese - quote -- "as long as God gives me the opportunity". On April 16, the media learns that the Arch Bishop has actually been secretly meeting in the Vatican, and, in fact, also held a meeting with the Pontiff himself. He came back and released another statement, saying that he was intending to serve in the Archdiocese with every fiber of his being. He expected, again, to leave at some point following his (UNITELLIGIBLE) sermon this morning to go to additional meetings in Rome - Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Michael Okwu, thank you so much, and I'm just being told we're going to carry parts of Cardinal Law's mass live here on CNN when it starts.

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