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Vatican Informs Bishops U.S. Church Plan for Dealing with Sex Abuse Confusing, Ambiguous

Aired October 18, 2002 - 11:16   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: The Vatican has informed American bishops that the U.S. church plans for dealing with sex abuse by priests is confusing and ambiguous. And as a result, a commission is going to be formed to create and rather, is going to be created to deal with that matter.
CNN's Jim Bittermann is covering the story for us. He joins us now from Vatican City. He's got some more details on it.

Jim, hello.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, the head of the U.S. Bishops Conference, who has been here all week long, was asked today if he was disappointed by that Vatican ruling, and he said he was not, and he also said he was not surprised, yet he's been here all week, trying to talk Vatican officials into giving the Vatican's blessing to the procedures and policies adopted by U.S. bishops in Dallas in June. Those procedures for handling sexual abusing priests.

Basically, the Vatican seems to have adopted three different procedures that the bishop in the United States agreed to. One is the setting up of church review billboards and individual dioceses across the United States. The other is the very definition of sexual abuse, and the third is the procedures for handling sexual abuse and abusing priests. Now that last one in particular seems to spell the end to the idea of zero tolerance, which was the centerpiece of the Dallas strategy, and the idea that any priest ever caught molesting a child would be immediately expelled from the priesthood. It seemed to be the end of the zero tolerance rule.

But Bishop Gregory seemed to indicate otherwise when he was asked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP WILTON GREGORY, D.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: I don't think zero tolerance is a term that is used, and believe it or not, it's not the term in the charter, either. It is a term that has grown in popularity on the part of a lot of people.

But even granting that, even conceding where the term originated from, no one in the Holy Sea raised that specific issue as an insurmountable problem or a problem that would never be accepted in whatever recommended changes would be forthcoming from the mixed commission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: So on that commission, as you indicated, will now sit down and try to resolve the differences. Four bishops from the United States, four representatives of the Vatican, and Bishop Gregory said he hopes the commission will have something to present to the next meeting of Bishops in Washington coming up on the 11th of November, not very far from now. Somebody said if the Vatican moves that fast it would be a miracle. The bishop said, well, I'm a man who believes in miracles.

HARRIS: It might take one in this case. Jim Bittermann, reporting live from Vatican City. Thanks, Jim.

Let's get some reaction to the press conference at the Vatican. Let's bring in CNN Vatican analyst John Allen. He's also Vatican correspondent for "The National Catholic Reporter." He checks in from our New York bureau.

Good to see you this morning.

What do you think this is likely to do and the rift it's likely to cause among the laity? Because I can't imagine too many of the victims' groups I've been talking to over the last four, five months will be happy with this?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: It's a safe bet the victims groups are not going to be happy with this. Quite the contrary. I think they're going to object to it on two levels. I mean, one is the substantive question, as to whether this is our is not a backtracking on zero tolerance, and this sort of get tough approach. The commitment to weed out the priesthood all of the abusers that was made by the American bishops in Dallas. I think it remains to be seen what this mixed group comes up with.

But you know, there's another issue here, which is a sort of a procedural one. I talked to David Kohesi (ph) from the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priest about an hour ago. And David is also upset on the grounds that this commission, of which these eight men, who are going to sit around a table and hatch this deal do not include any lay people, and certainly do not include any victims or their representatives. And I think that, too, is going to be a subject of concern for the victims out there.

HARRIS: That's sort of, it brings up and underscores arguments many of these groups have made all along, that the Vatican is much more concerned about the lives of the priests than those abused and the families. Aside from the PR disaster that is shaping up right here, is the Vatican really turning a deaf ear here?

ALLEN: Leon, I don't think that's fair. I, of course, live and work in Rome, and I cover the Vatican on a regular basis. I don't think it's fair to say they're unconcerned about victims. In fact, the document underscores again the pastoral concern, the anxiety they have for the suffering of victims. But I think it's fair to say also that the Vatican view here is that you don't solve one injustice with another. The first injustice was the sexual abuse and the cover-up. The second injustice would be railroading accused priests without giving them the opportunity to defend themselves. So what they're trying to do is strike a balance.

The problem, of course, is this is an exceptional difficult balance to work out. In the meantime, the bishops, especially the American bishops, because of the failure to aggressively deal with this, have lost enough credibility that when the Vatican and the U.S. bishops say, trust us to work it out, that's a very tough sell right now.

And there's one other point, too, these groups make all the time, seems like the Vatican's not operating here on basis of fact, because the rate of this is something they seem to ignore. The fact that I know the Vatican is very concerned about the ethic of forgiveness and everything, seems as though they have yet to come up way formula with a perfect bill that stops abusers from abusing and keep going back to that behavior, whether they're priests or not. We've seen it off and on over and over again. The claim these groups are making, the Vatican is not looking at the facts.

One other point that deserves to be made. Both -- this debate, unfortunately, pits the victims' rights groups who want zero tolerance against priests that want due process nap leaves out of focus the third piece of the puzzle in ways the most important, the bishops themselves. The Dallas program was all about holding priests who abuse accountable which needs to be done. The bigger question, how do you hold bishops accountable who covered up or through negligence failed to act? no one seems to be talking about that. That, too, will about point victims will make over and over again.

HARRIS: Something that will be around a while longer it appears, unfortunately for many who have suffered from this. Have a good weekend.

ALLEN: You, too.

HARRIS: Talk with you later on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Sex Abuse Confusing, Ambiguous>


Aired October 18, 2002 - 11:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Vatican has informed American bishops that the U.S. church plans for dealing with sex abuse by priests is confusing and ambiguous. And as a result, a commission is going to be formed to create and rather, is going to be created to deal with that matter.
CNN's Jim Bittermann is covering the story for us. He joins us now from Vatican City. He's got some more details on it.

Jim, hello.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, the head of the U.S. Bishops Conference, who has been here all week long, was asked today if he was disappointed by that Vatican ruling, and he said he was not, and he also said he was not surprised, yet he's been here all week, trying to talk Vatican officials into giving the Vatican's blessing to the procedures and policies adopted by U.S. bishops in Dallas in June. Those procedures for handling sexual abusing priests.

Basically, the Vatican seems to have adopted three different procedures that the bishop in the United States agreed to. One is the setting up of church review billboards and individual dioceses across the United States. The other is the very definition of sexual abuse, and the third is the procedures for handling sexual abuse and abusing priests. Now that last one in particular seems to spell the end to the idea of zero tolerance, which was the centerpiece of the Dallas strategy, and the idea that any priest ever caught molesting a child would be immediately expelled from the priesthood. It seemed to be the end of the zero tolerance rule.

But Bishop Gregory seemed to indicate otherwise when he was asked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP WILTON GREGORY, D.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: I don't think zero tolerance is a term that is used, and believe it or not, it's not the term in the charter, either. It is a term that has grown in popularity on the part of a lot of people.

But even granting that, even conceding where the term originated from, no one in the Holy Sea raised that specific issue as an insurmountable problem or a problem that would never be accepted in whatever recommended changes would be forthcoming from the mixed commission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: So on that commission, as you indicated, will now sit down and try to resolve the differences. Four bishops from the United States, four representatives of the Vatican, and Bishop Gregory said he hopes the commission will have something to present to the next meeting of Bishops in Washington coming up on the 11th of November, not very far from now. Somebody said if the Vatican moves that fast it would be a miracle. The bishop said, well, I'm a man who believes in miracles.

HARRIS: It might take one in this case. Jim Bittermann, reporting live from Vatican City. Thanks, Jim.

Let's get some reaction to the press conference at the Vatican. Let's bring in CNN Vatican analyst John Allen. He's also Vatican correspondent for "The National Catholic Reporter." He checks in from our New York bureau.

Good to see you this morning.

What do you think this is likely to do and the rift it's likely to cause among the laity? Because I can't imagine too many of the victims' groups I've been talking to over the last four, five months will be happy with this?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: It's a safe bet the victims groups are not going to be happy with this. Quite the contrary. I think they're going to object to it on two levels. I mean, one is the substantive question, as to whether this is our is not a backtracking on zero tolerance, and this sort of get tough approach. The commitment to weed out the priesthood all of the abusers that was made by the American bishops in Dallas. I think it remains to be seen what this mixed group comes up with.

But you know, there's another issue here, which is a sort of a procedural one. I talked to David Kohesi (ph) from the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priest about an hour ago. And David is also upset on the grounds that this commission, of which these eight men, who are going to sit around a table and hatch this deal do not include any lay people, and certainly do not include any victims or their representatives. And I think that, too, is going to be a subject of concern for the victims out there.

HARRIS: That's sort of, it brings up and underscores arguments many of these groups have made all along, that the Vatican is much more concerned about the lives of the priests than those abused and the families. Aside from the PR disaster that is shaping up right here, is the Vatican really turning a deaf ear here?

ALLEN: Leon, I don't think that's fair. I, of course, live and work in Rome, and I cover the Vatican on a regular basis. I don't think it's fair to say they're unconcerned about victims. In fact, the document underscores again the pastoral concern, the anxiety they have for the suffering of victims. But I think it's fair to say also that the Vatican view here is that you don't solve one injustice with another. The first injustice was the sexual abuse and the cover-up. The second injustice would be railroading accused priests without giving them the opportunity to defend themselves. So what they're trying to do is strike a balance.

The problem, of course, is this is an exceptional difficult balance to work out. In the meantime, the bishops, especially the American bishops, because of the failure to aggressively deal with this, have lost enough credibility that when the Vatican and the U.S. bishops say, trust us to work it out, that's a very tough sell right now.

And there's one other point, too, these groups make all the time, seems like the Vatican's not operating here on basis of fact, because the rate of this is something they seem to ignore. The fact that I know the Vatican is very concerned about the ethic of forgiveness and everything, seems as though they have yet to come up way formula with a perfect bill that stops abusers from abusing and keep going back to that behavior, whether they're priests or not. We've seen it off and on over and over again. The claim these groups are making, the Vatican is not looking at the facts.

One other point that deserves to be made. Both -- this debate, unfortunately, pits the victims' rights groups who want zero tolerance against priests that want due process nap leaves out of focus the third piece of the puzzle in ways the most important, the bishops themselves. The Dallas program was all about holding priests who abuse accountable which needs to be done. The bigger question, how do you hold bishops accountable who covered up or through negligence failed to act? no one seems to be talking about that. That, too, will about point victims will make over and over again.

HARRIS: Something that will be around a while longer it appears, unfortunately for many who have suffered from this. Have a good weekend.

ALLEN: You, too.

HARRIS: Talk with you later on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Sex Abuse Confusing, Ambiguous>