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CNN Live At Daybreak
Day Two of Vatican Summit Shaping Up Differently From Day One
Aired April 24, 2002 - 06:01 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Day two of the Vatican summit is shaping up a little differently from day one. For a live update, we want to go live to Rome and our Rome bureau chief, Alessio Vinci -- good morning to you again, Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning to you, Carol. Yes, indeed, a little bit different than yesterday. The cardinals have pre-prepared speeches about the issue of pedophilia. Today, we understand there is going to be more debate between the U.S. cardinals, who traveled from the United States all the way here to the Vatican to address the issue, and the top Vatican officials, who are very eager to hear more about the scandal and the actual abuse of children in the United States.
So today, we are going to hear more of a debate about the issues that were raised yesterday. And one of them is, of course, what to do with those priests who are accused of sexually molesting children. There are some U.S. bishops and cardinals in the United States who have called for a zero tolerance policy, meaning one strike and you're out. And this is also something that the pope has addressed in his speech, saying basically that there is no room in the Catholic Church in the clergy for those who are harming children.
But at the same time, the pope also said that we should not forget about redemption, about those people who repent themselves and go back to God. So there is a little bit of confusion about how to interpret the words of the pope. Will the Vatican here support the zero tolerance policy, or perhaps the church - the Catholic Church here and the Vatican is looking for a more softer approach?
Still, Vatican officials say no tolerance, zero tolerance on those who abuse children, but they are not saying that that means automatically defrocking children -- defrocking priests -- sorry.
The other issue that will not come up during this -- one issue that will not come up in this discussion today will be the resignations of Bernard Law, the cardinal of Boston. We understand this is going to be an issue discussed between the pope and the cardinal himself in the weeks and months to come, as well as another issue that will not be discussed again today that was raised a couple of days before the meeting began is the -- whether the women should have a greater role in the church, or whether the celibacy should be addressed. All of those issues will not be discussed today.
Now, joining me here to talk about other things is Charles Sennott. He is the "Boston Globe" reporter here in Rome covering this story. He also wrote a book about 12 years ago on the same issue about the sex abuse from clergymen.
What's the difference between what happened 12 years ago and now?
CHARLES SENNOTT, EUROPE BUREAU CHIEF: Twelve years ago, this scandal was really first breaking. I think American Catholics were dealing 12, even 15 years ago with the idea that this has happened. That there have been priests who have actually abused the trust in them and hurt these young people, children or sometimes young seminarians or students, and there was great shock. There was anger at the media back then, and there was great shock.
But Catholics were told that their hierarchy was going to do something about this. The difference now is Catholics are angry, not at the media, and they are not even that shocked. They are angry at their own leadership now. They are angry at the bishops and at the cardinals who didn't correct the problem and who, in some cases, have even contributed to the problem by shuffling these priests from one parish to the next knowing that they were pedophiles.
So we now have a situation where the story was confined to America then. It has now become something that is very important here in the Vatican on a hierarchical level.
VINCI: Does that mean that perhaps now, once and for all, there will be a solution to the problem?
SENNOTT: I think Catholics are hoping that, but I think they are also rightly a bit cynical about this. Is this going to deal with it? I think yesterday's statement by the pope was very important. It was very symbolic. It was saying that the Vatican gets this. It understands the pain, the suffering and the millions of dollars that this is costing the church, and they are going to try their best now to deal with it.
The guidelines they come up with here will, of course, be brought to Dallas in June for the U.S. Conference of Bishops. That will be the critical test. Will they come up with solid guidelines that will be binding and that will be tough and that will be imposed in June on all of the 194 diocese in America?
VINCI: Charles, I wish I had more time to talk to you. Thank you very much for joining us here.
SENNOTT: Thank you.
VINCI: Carol -- back to you.
COSTELLO: All right. Thank you very much -- Alessio Vinci reporting live for us from the Vatican in Rome.
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