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Pope John Paul II Tells American Cardinals There's No Place in Priesthood for Abusers Who Harm Young

Aired April 23, 2002 - 11:02   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first on CNN, an extraordinary summit at the Vatican. It focusing on the sex-abuse scandal in the U.S. At the opening of the summit today, Pope John Paul II told American cardinals that there is no place in the priesthood for abusers who harm the young.

Our Jim Bittermann joins us now live from Rome with more -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, the afternoon session of those meetings began about a half hour ago. We expect them to go on into the evening this evening. That after-morning session with 12 of be 13 of the American cardinals that were here, along with seven cardinals from the Vatican itself.

And I should say, this is like the Vatican top brass, including Angelo Zadano (ph), who is the secretary of state of state, sort of the Vatican's prime minister, kind of a kind of indication of how important the Vatican is, considering this entire sex abuse problem in the United States.

After their meeting for about 2 1/2 hours this morning among themselves, the cardinals went next door to the pope's library, where the pope gave a bit of a speech to the cardinals, sort of putting framework on their meetings here. He said, among other things, he said the abuse which caused this crisis is by every standard wrong, and rightly considered a crime by society, indicating his feelings about how much secular law may have been violated by some of the priest in the United States.

And he urged the churchmen to come with criteria that could be used to avoid this kind of mistake in the future.

Having said that, after the meetings this morning, I had a chance to talk with cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit. And I asked Adam Maida, what kind of issues have to be discussed if you want to come up with those kinds of general criteria.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARDINAL ADAM JOSEPH MAIDA, ARCHBISHOP OF DETROIT: There are certain pastoral issues that we need to look at. And we need to look out in our seminaries, are we doing a good job at screening candidates? And so that the Vatican can help us in a very, very concrete way, and I have great hopes that we are going to come from here very much supported, very much enriched, a clear direction and a great hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Earlier, cardinal Francis George of Chicago, another of the attendees here, was asked at a news conference about exactly how easy or complicated it was to come up with one rule that will apply in all cases, and he said it was very complicated indeed.

Here's the way he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE, ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO: The difficulty lies in the diversity of comportment of behavior that we're talking about. There is a difference between a moral monster like Geoghan, who preys upon little children, and does so in a serial fashion, and to someone who perhaps, under the influence of alcohol, engages in an action with a 17 or 16-year-old young women who returns his affection. That is still a crime in every instance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: And, Leon, as I mentioned, there is a session going on right now, that will go on into the evening. One thing that has changed however, and we're not sure exactly why, but there was to have been a press briefing after this afternoon's session that has just gotten under way, and they now say it's not going to be held. So we're not sure what's going on there, but we're not going to get a briefing after the afternoon session this evening -- Leon.

HARRIS: That's interesting, particularly since we did see one earlier this morning.

Jim Bittermann in Rome, thanks very much. We appreciate that. We have to try to get some more perspective on exactly what is going on there with that now change in the plans for whether or not there will be a briefing.

We have seen some comments from Rome, as we said from Rome, coming from priests who are -- who -- sorry, cardinals who have been there, and bishop who have been privy to what's been going on there. However, interestingly, they've all been Americans. We have not heard yet of any of the international community of bishops who have actually been speaking out and speaking to the press.

Joining us now with some more perspective on all of this, as well as on the pope's words this morning that were issued out. In a statement that he actually read to the gathering this morning, Pope John Paul's address on pedophelia, it's being called here. We have a benefit here, as you see on the screen here.

The pope's words, the one's which really got the whole meeting started were these: "The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it also appalling, an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and there families, wherever they may me, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern."

There was some concern as to whether or not those words were strong enough. Let's find out from Delia Gallagher and see what her thoughts are on this. Delia is managing editor of "Inside the Vatican." She joins us once again from Rome.

Thank you for coming back and talking to us after yesterday. We had a great conversation. We want to continue it today.

What do you make of those words that we heard from Pope John Paul this morning?

DELIA GALLAGHER, MANAGING EDITOR, "INSIDE THE VATICAN": Well, if I can, I would just like to clarify one thing that I heard in your headline about the pope, saying about the pope, saying that he had -- the church has mishandled the situation. Indeed, that was not the word used. His statement was that he understood that many had been offended by the perceived handling on behalf of church leaders.

So I think this is one issue where the church realizes they don't have a PR company to do their publicity. And unfortunately, sometimes, some of the churches actions and responses don't get reported. And I'll give you an example. Last year in response to the sexual abuses in Britain and France, in June, the congregation resulted in faith (ph) was decreed to be the central body to hear sex abuse cases. This was a major change, because as you know, the church generally attempts to leave the freedom to the local churches and the archdiocese to deal with their own cases.

Instead in June, they made the change. It was not reported until the American press in January, and even then, didn't make headlines. So I think there is sometime a perceived lack of response on the part of the church, and I think that's what the pope was also trying to address.

Of course, he was referring to the response after the scandal broke, not to the response of cardinal Law or any others that were in power at the time.

HARRIS: Let me jump on one distinction you just made there, about the fact that what happens here in the U.S., and sometimes what gets talked about in the press and the church as well, here in U.S. is not to say that what happens in the press and in the church outside of the U.S. I have noticed there that what's happening in Rome is only the American voices there have been -- have been speaking out and having this press conferences, and actually coming from the meeting and reporting back to the press about what's going on.

Is that something that's by design, or that something that's happened because that's only the American press -- or I'm sorry -- the Americans who were there in attendance? That's just their particular field of interest at this particular point? GALLAGHER: Well, if you mean only the American journalist or the American cardinals, well...

HARRIS: The American cardinals. I want to clarify that. The American cardinals is what I'm referring to here.

GALLAGHER: Instead of other cardinals. But as I just said, Britain and France have already dealt with this problem. Ireland is dealing with this problem, but they did not have this special meeting that the American cardinals have been offered, so that would be the reason why we don't hear as much from them.

But of course, in their respective countries, it's big news, and was big news for the past two years, in Europe, in Britain and France, at least.

HARRIS: Well, we're going to have to move on, but it's going to be big news for the next couple of days there.

Delia Gallagher, we want to talk more with you about this. We appreciate your time this morning.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.

HARRIS: Take care.

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