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American Morning
Nation's Roman Catholic Bishops Meet in Dallas, Texas
Aired June 13, 2002 - 07:02 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops meet in Dallas, Texas to discuss the sex abuse scandal rocking the church. More than 300 bishops are there. Their mandate: How to deal with the sins of the past and prevent future ones.
Jason Carroll is in Dallas. He joins us live.
Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Paula. Well, the bishops on the sexual abuse committee worked through the night last night, worked until about 11:00. And we are told this morning that they have come up with a tougher draft report that they can then present to the bishops today.
Critics say that the current draft report is weak. It's not strong enough, critics say. They want a zero tolerance or a one strike and you're out type of policy. The current policy calls for zero tolerance in future cases involving priests accused of sexual abuse, but not necessarily past cases.
But a source in the church tells me this morning, Paula, that the bishops are considering a plan to toughen their stance on past cases. They are considering a change in the draft report, so that any priest accused of just one case of sexual abuse in the past and was not seen to be a pedophile will be permanently suspended from the ministry. That means that that priest cannot perform any priestly duties, cannot call himself a priest. It's essentially like being defrocked, Paula, but it's without going through the official Vatican crosses of laicization. So that is one point that will be changed, one point that will be discussed today.
Another thorny issue, and that is the issue of accountability. In other words, there is nothing in this current draft report that indicates how a bishop would be punished if this bishop chooses not to follow the guidelines that are reached during this national conference. That issue was discussed yesterday with victims as well as bishops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is my hope that the charter, as it now stands, has an element of accountability in it, but what we heard this afternoon was that element should be strengthened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We appeal to them to place disciplinary procedures in their draft proposal for bishops who would provide that safe haven for sexual offenders in the priesthood for cases past, present and future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: And again, a stronger proposal will be on the table today dealing with past and future cases. We'll see how critics have to respond to that.
Later today, Bishop Wilton Gregory will open the proceedings. He will give some sort of a talk, some sort of a speech to the bishops. The bishops will also hear from victims and lay people. They hope by the end of the day to have a stronger, a better proposal on the table that they can then vote on tomorrow -- Paula.
ZAHN: Jason, you pick up and poll and it would suggest that the Catholic Church was going to react to public opinion. It would toughen up this draft policy. But I am curious, when you talked to this individual, who suggested that that is under consideration today, how much support there would be for the new, tougher language.
CARROLL: It seems as if this is something that will have support from a number of the bishops here at the conference. Of course, there is no guarantee this will end up in the final draft, but this source telling me that this is something -- that even those bishops who were sort of on the line that this is something that they can get behind -- Paula.
ZAHN: And the key difference would be what between the new, tougher draft policy and the one originally conceptualized?
CARROLL: Well, in the original draft report, when you are dealing with past cases of sexual abuse, let's say that there is a priest where there is a credible allegation of sexual abuse, but it's just that one time. And after that, this priest has had a clean record. This priest is deemed not to be a pedophile. The current policy allows an exception for that priest to remain somehow in the priesthood.
What they have come up with now is an amendment to this draft report, which basically says that any priest, where there is this -- in past case, where there is this one-time allegation, a credible allegation, that you are out of the priesthood essentially. You have been suspended from ministry. You cannot call yourself a priest. You cannot perform any priestly duties. You are removed from the ministry.
However, you are not officially defrocked or laicized, and that is a process that has to go through the Vatican. But a bishop always has his power to officially suspend or remove a priest from ministry. So this is a way of sort of getting around the Vatican process of laicization or being defrocked -- Paula.
ZAHN: OK. Jason, thank you. Keep us posted on what's happening at those meetings.
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