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Church Crisis: Cardinal Law in Rome

Aired December 09, 2002 - 06:13   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: The embattled leader of Boston's Roman Catholic, Cardinal Bernard Law, is in Rome at this hour, leading to much speculation about why he's in Rome.
Joining us now on the phone from Rome is John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter."

John, why would Cardinal Law be in Rome at this time?

JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Well, Carol, what we have -- morning -- is a very brief two sentence statement from the Vatican confirming Cardinal Law's presence and indicating that he has come to inform the Holy See, that is the Vatican, on diverse aspects of the situation in his diocese of Boston. Now that's all we have officially.

Unofficially, I think we can add that those diverse aspects would certainly include the mammoth document drop that's occurred in the last few days, documents that have been unsealed under court order and also would include the prospect of bankruptcy, which of course under the weight of current and future legal problems facing the archdiocese is a very real one. So he is meeting with the...

COSTELLO: So just to interrupt for just one second so people understand, so does he have to get Vatican approval to declare bankruptcy?

ALLEN: Well that's -- you know I can answer that in two levels. The one is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what does church law say? And then perhaps unsurprisingly church law doesn't say anything about bankruptcy because no one anticipated that a diocese might be going bankrupt when the Code of Canon Law was put together in 1983. So Canon lawyers sort of don't know. But politically speaking, obviously, no archbishop is going to do something as huge as declaring bankruptcy without confirming (ph) with the Vatican.

COSTELLO: Got you.

ALLEN: So certainly he would be meeting with officials here to discuss what that means.

COSTELLO: OK, the other rumor that's been floating around for a good long time now is that there'll be some job for him in Rome at the Vatican. Could that be part of this trip, too?

ALLEN: Well I think it's probably unrealistic to expect some kind of public move to that effect out of this trip. I -- you know for -- since this crisis began in January, Vatican officials had been hesitant to move against Law for a couple of reasons. One is the fear of a domino effect. That is that it wouldn't just be Law. If he were to step down, there are other American bishops facing similar problems.

The other is a sense that you know this is his mess and he ought to clean it up. But from a certain view (ph), resignation would almost be too easy. But I think you know the balancing act that goes on is when the (ph) meltdown in Boston outweigh those other considerations? Clearly you can be sure that's being talked about this week, but I think it's too early to anticipate the outcome.

COSTELLO: OK, we'll keep following this story thanks to you though.

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







Aired December 9, 2002 - 06:13   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The embattled leader of Boston's Roman Catholic, Cardinal Bernard Law, is in Rome at this hour, leading to much speculation about why he's in Rome.
Joining us now on the phone from Rome is John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter."

John, why would Cardinal Law be in Rome at this time?

JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Well, Carol, what we have -- morning -- is a very brief two sentence statement from the Vatican confirming Cardinal Law's presence and indicating that he has come to inform the Holy See, that is the Vatican, on diverse aspects of the situation in his diocese of Boston. Now that's all we have officially.

Unofficially, I think we can add that those diverse aspects would certainly include the mammoth document drop that's occurred in the last few days, documents that have been unsealed under court order and also would include the prospect of bankruptcy, which of course under the weight of current and future legal problems facing the archdiocese is a very real one. So he is meeting with the...

COSTELLO: So just to interrupt for just one second so people understand, so does he have to get Vatican approval to declare bankruptcy?

ALLEN: Well that's -- you know I can answer that in two levels. The one is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what does church law say? And then perhaps unsurprisingly church law doesn't say anything about bankruptcy because no one anticipated that a diocese might be going bankrupt when the Code of Canon Law was put together in 1983. So Canon lawyers sort of don't know. But politically speaking, obviously, no archbishop is going to do something as huge as declaring bankruptcy without confirming (ph) with the Vatican.

COSTELLO: Got you.

ALLEN: So certainly he would be meeting with officials here to discuss what that means.

COSTELLO: OK, the other rumor that's been floating around for a good long time now is that there'll be some job for him in Rome at the Vatican. Could that be part of this trip, too?

ALLEN: Well I think it's probably unrealistic to expect some kind of public move to that effect out of this trip. I -- you know for -- since this crisis began in January, Vatican officials had been hesitant to move against Law for a couple of reasons. One is the fear of a domino effect. That is that it wouldn't just be Law. If he were to step down, there are other American bishops facing similar problems.

The other is a sense that you know this is his mess and he ought to clean it up. But from a certain view (ph), resignation would almost be too easy. But I think you know the balancing act that goes on is when the (ph) meltdown in Boston outweigh those other considerations? Clearly you can be sure that's being talked about this week, but I think it's too early to anticipate the outcome.

COSTELLO: OK, we'll keep following this story thanks to you though.

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