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American Cardinals, Vatican Confront Sex Scandal

Aired April 22, 2002 - 12:01   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: The stage is set in Rome for the American cardinals to confront the sex scandal within the Catholic church. All agree the quickly called meeting is unprecedented. But what American Catholics want to know is whether papal intervention will make any difference, and whether any church leaders will be held accountable.

More now from CNN's Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci.

Good to see you, Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

Well, I hope we will have some of those answers beginning tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday, when the cardinals begin to meet. They have already arrived here earlier today in Rome, at Fiumicino Airport and at another, da Vinci, airport here in Rome. Most of cardinal here telling us is what they tried to do with this meeting above everything is to try to restore some credibility in the U.S. church, as well as open a dialogue, a frank dialogue, with top Vatican officials regarding the sex abuse scandals, which have rocked the U.S. Catholic church.

But not only that, also many churches around the world have faced the same problems. Not in the same magnitude as in the United States, but this is now an issue that the pope himself and the Vatican feel that needs to be addressed here in Rome. This meeting, for the time being, will only include U.S. cardinals.

Most of the cardinals that are going to participate in this meeting, as well as Vatican officials, are warning against too much expectations out of this meeting. This is just a consultative meeting. There are no binding guidelines or protocols that will be issued at the end of this meeting, but this is just a working session that will allow U.s. Bishops, when they meet later, in June, in Dallas, to have a clear idea of what the position of the Vatican is, guidelines such as what to do when first reports, first allegations of sexual abuse arise: when to report them to the police, what to do.

One of the cardinals at the very center of this scandal is, of course, Cardinal Law, of Boston. He arrived earlier today; he has been under tremendous pressure from the newspapers, especially in the United States, in Boston, to resign. Cardinal Law has met secretly with the pope before. But not everybody, not all the cardinals who are traveling here to Rome who will be addressing this meeting tomorrow agree that Cardinal Law should resign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cardinal Law has been saying the trouble began on his watch and he wants to fix it. So I think give him a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VINCI: Calls to resign also come early today by report from "The Los Angeles Times" and an unidentified cardinal and bishop also saying they are planning to bring up the subject of Cardinal Law resignation during the meeting. However, top Vatican officials here are telling us that for the time being it is not under discussion, any resignation, but rather the issues that have to be directly dealt with in order to make this problem go away -- not just the scandal itself, but what do in order to deal with this pressing issue of pedophilia among the clergymen.

Back to you -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Alessio, let's talk about the pope for a moment here and a formal apology. He has made unprecedented apologies in past. When this is all said and done, how important do you think an apology coming from the pope is to the Catholic community -- especially there in Rome?

VINCI: Well, I must afraid the fact that this scandal has particularly hurt the U.S. Catholic church. Here in Europe, especially, even though there have been some scandals, there have been some instances of sex abuse, it hasn't reached a level of the magnitude that it has reached in the United States. So certainly, here in Europe, there is no expectation that the pope himself will actually issue an apology; I think that especially in the United States, the victims there would like the pope to come out more in a more open way.

But the fact that the pope has called this meeting, it is an unprecedented meeting. It is not the first time he has called cardinals here, but it is certainly extraordinary that he has given in such a short notice the call to have them coming here. So this is already a way for the pope to say we're dealing with it, we understand that this is a pressing issue, and even though there have been a lot of accusations against the Catholic church and the Vatican itself for not addressing the issue directly, this meeting certainly will set the stage and at least will be a very important first step in dealing with this issue itself; then eventually, it will be up to the U.S. bishops in United States to deal with the day-to-day operation of what do exactly to address the issues of pedophilia.

But I think the pope himself will not issue an apology regarding a scandal that so far, at least as far as Vatican sees it, has really mainly been a huge problem in the United States -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Alessio, something else here in the United States that has been discussed a lot, and that is this issue of healing, for Catholics to start healing, the church to start healing. An article came out in the L.A. Times talking about that really can't start until Boston Archbishop Bernard Law resigns. What is the take there in Rome?

VINCI: Vatican officials are telling us that at least for the time being, the resignations of any cardinal are not up for discussion. What the Vatican officials here would like to do first and foremost is to address the issue directly: What are the guidelines that should be addressed and eventually made, perhaps, as nationwide guidelines and protocols in the United States in order to deal with the pedophilia issue. None of the Vatican officials here are telling us that the resignation of Cardinal Law will come up during the meeting.

The cardinal himself has met with the pope before. The issue has come up, but the pope has said that for the time being, this is not up for discussion.

There are some U.S. cardinals who would like to see Cardinal Law go. However, as far as the Vatican is concerned, right now, the most important thing is to tackle the issue. And of course, the healing process is very important. There are a lot of people who have been hurt about this, but the Vatican also feels that before we can start resigning and finding some people, the most important thing is to deal with the problem itself, and the Cardinal Law resignation is certainly not one way to deal with the issue.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Alessio Vinci, from Rome.

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