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CNN Live Today

Church Leaders Outline Draft of Abusive Priest Plan

Aired June 04, 2002 - 10:17   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we turn now to the sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic church. There is a new plan by Church leaders for dealing with abusive priests. A draft version of that plan is being made available to the public today. Our Jason Carroll is live from Washington, he has details on what is in that proposal -- Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Daryn. Basically, this proposal falls a little bit short of what some of the victims' family members have been asking for. Namely, what they have been looking for is a zero tolerance, one strike and you're out type of policy, but the draft report indicates that the bishops will allow an exception.

Namely, if a cleric has only had one offense, has not been diagnosed as a pedophile, and has basically had a clean record since that offense. Well, you might want to ask, why the exception. The pope basically believes that there is the power of conversion. He made that point when he met with the U.S. cardinals in Rome. He basically believes that just because of one indiscretion, that there is potential for a cleric to recover from that one indiscretion.

But there are some points that some of the victims will probably favor. First being that the diocese will report any accusation of sexual abuse of person who is a minor to the proper authorities, and cooperate in their investigation. Also, as a preventative measure regarding acts of sexual abuse committed subsequent to this date, even a single active abuse of a minor will bring about a request for laicization, that is basically a cleric being reduced to lay status.

Also, regarding acts of sexual abuse as committed prior to this date, if the cleric is a pedophile or if he has committing more than one act of sexual abuse of a minor, there will be a request for the cleric's laicization, even without his consent, if necessary.

Also, Daryn, there have been many problems in the past in terms of this priest scandal with priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, of being transferred from parish to parish. We saw that in the case of Boston with this man, defrocked priest John Geoghan, who is currently serving a sentence for molesting a young boy.

We also saw that in the case of retired priest Paul Shanley. Paul Shanley is currently facing three counts of child rape. Paul Shanley, you see there. Both of those men transferred from parish to parish in Boston despite the fact that there were allegations of sexual abuse.

In this draft report, it is indicated that they will outline a plan to have a review of a priest's record before he is transferred to another parish.

Another quick point I want to bring up here, and that is the fact that a number of the victims and their family members have expressed the need to speak with church officials about this crisis. The crisis -- in this particular report here, the bishops have indicated that they -- that they agree with that, they agree that there is a need to reach out to family members, reach out to victims as well, but there is no indication, at least at this point, if victims will be allowed to speak next week at the bishops' meetings. And as I have said, that many victims have already indicated that they should be allowed to participate.

So, once again, this is a draft report, the final report will have to be approved by the Vatican. The National Conference of U.S. Bishops meets next week in Dallas -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jason, so much to digest, but real quickly, is there a difference in the standard of abuse allegations in the future, versus someone who might be accused of something that happened in the past?

CARROLL: No. Clearly, the only sort of difference that -- at least that we can see here so far in this draft report is if a cleric has had only one offense, and this cleric has not been deemed to be a pedophile in some way shape or form, then there is the potential for that cleric to continue with his priestly duties so long as he has not had another offense prior to the one that he was initially accused of...

KAGAN: All right. So, one strike.

CARROLL: ... so that seems to be the only distinction there.

KAGAN: The one strike rule. All right. Jason Carroll in D.C. Thank you so much.

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