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American Hiker Released From Iranian Prison; Movement to Ordain Woman as Priests in Catholic Church Addresses Vatican; Poverty Increasing in America; U.S. Latino Population Growing; Some Scam Artists Taking Advantage of Unemployed; Afghans Vote in Parliamentary Elections

Aired September 18, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: An American held prison in Iran heads home. Before taking off to the U.S. Sarah Shourd spoke publicly about Iran and her American friends still being held.

And Pope Benedict apologizes in Britain for the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. A live report from London at 3:00 eastern time.

And Bermuda braces for hurricane Igor. We'll have the latest on preparations at 4:00 eastern time here in the CNN Newsroom, where the news unfolds this Saturday, September 18. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Our top story -- Sarah Shourd is scheduled to arrive home in the United States sometime tomorrow. Before boarding a U.S. bound flight from Amman, she talked about her two companions, her fiancee and a friend who remained jailed in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SHOURD, FREED HIKER: I want to begin by thanking his majesty, the Sultan, for welcoming me to this beautiful country upon my release.

I also want to extend my gratitude to the American ambassador Richard Shear and his wife, Sandy, for hosting my family and I during our unfortunately brief stay.

I have a deep appreciation for the Dr. Sali Manali (ph) for bringing me from Tehran, for the honor of his friendship, and most importantly, for his continued engagement in my life and the life of my fiancee, Shane Bauer, and my dear friend, Josh Fattal, for the past 13.5 months.

It would be a pleasure to return to Amman, and it is my deepest, deepest hope that I would be able to show Shane and Josh the grand mosque soon, one of the most peaceful and powerful places of worship I have ever seen.

I will always associate your country with the first breath of my freedom, the sweet smell of sandalwood, and the chance to stand by the ocean listening to the waves. I thank the good, hospitable people of Oman for your support and ask you to please, please extend your prayers to my fiancee, Shane, and my friend, Josh. Insha'Allah, they will soon be free.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Shourd was arrested in July of last year along with her boyfriend Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal. They were all later accused of espionage.

On September 9, top Iranian officials announced plans that Should be released. Iranian judiciary officials reversed that announcement the next day, but then two days later announced Sarah would be released on bail.

Ammani sources reported posted $500,000 bail and Shourd was flown from Iran to Oman this past Tuesday.

Now to this country. Bp's broken well in the Gulf of Mexico is about to be permanently sealed. Today BP officials pumped cement into the bottom of the well. Once the cement is set, a final pressure test is conducted. If that's successful, the well will be officially declared dead. It ruptured five months ago, causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

I got an update earlier from U.S. Coast Guard on-scene incident commander Rear Admiral Paul Zukunet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL PAUL ZUKUNET, U.S. COAST GUARD ON-SCENE INCIDENT COMMANDER: That's certainly good news that the well is dead, but certainly, the operation lives on. We are actually 66 days since no oil was discharged from that well.

We still have over 600 miles of shoreline from Florida to Louisiana that have been impacted and, in fact, today I have over 25,000 people out there doing very intense and high heat conditions clean up along the 600 miles, and that will continue for some period of time.

Another concern has been, you know, where did the rest of the oil go? We have, today I have 11 research vessels that we are working very closely with NOAA and the scientific and academic community doing water and sediment samples and also sampling close to shore, and more importantly, sampling for seafood safety.

This is the most tested seafood anywhere in the world now. The good news is most of the areas that were closed because of the spill are now reopening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That's the latest on the BO oil situation in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meantime, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a painful issue on the third day of his trip to Great Britain. The child abuse sex scandal that rocked the church. He met with five victims in London and he expressed deep sorrow to the innocent victims of the unspeakable crimes.

Well, this wasn't enough to dissuade thousands of people from protesting the Pope's visit this afternoon. They gathered near Hyde Park where the pontiff led a prayer vigil for the beatification of a British cardinal.

So, the role of women in the church is also a sore point for many Catholics. Today, Catholic women are gathering in Chicago for the 35st anniversary of the women's ordination conference. Organizers will screen "Pink Smoke over the Vatican," a documentary about Catholic women who are defying the church hierarchy by being illicitly ordained as priests.

Joining us live from Chicago, the film's director Jules Hart and Judge Sheila O'Brien, who favors the ordination of women in the church. But first, let's get a small view of "Pink Smoke over the Vatican."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In another century, I'm sure I would have expensed physical violence as a result of my choices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We probably would have been burnt at the stake centuries ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Jules Hart, one of the filmmakers here. Give me an idea what the message was. You wanted to show the ordination of women as priests is courageous and potentially dangerous.

JULES HART, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER: Absolutely. Many of these women lost their incomes. They have been tossed out of their spiritual communities. They have lost their spiritual home. Many of them have been excommunicated. For them, it puts their immortal souls in danger.

WHITFIELD: And so, this has been, I guess, a contentious issue for a long time. Many in the Catholic Church have said we would love to see women play a larger role in the hierarchy. We would love to see women priests. But of course, the vast majority of the Catholic Church is saying, no, it's not going to happen.

Is it your hope that your film is going to change the minds of anyone?

HART: I absolutely hope it changes the hearts and minds of people. I hope when they see this, they will see the antiquated reasons for keeping women out of the priesthood. I hope it may be the hierarchy will take a look at this and realize that women can change the church.

WHITFIELD: OK, so that is also at the core of the women's ordination conference taking place in Chicago.

Judge Sheila O'Brien, you are there attending the conference. Do you feel there is this groundswell of support for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church that resonates beyond this conference?

JUDGE SHEILA O'BRIEN, SUPPORTS ORDINATION OF WOMEN: It definitely does with people in the pew. People are ready for change. There are so many people that want to help the church in crisis, married men, women, men who used to be priests and who left. These are people who want to help god's people.

So we need all hands on deck at a time the church is in crisis. If you ask the person in the pew, they are ready for change.

Also, most of us, over 50, are used to having women in the church. The nuns taught us. They taught us how to make the first communion. They schooled us in our faith. We are used to having wonderful women at the helm.

WHITFIELD: You wrote a very strong opinion page. You are pleaded with the Catholic Church to excommunicate you because you were at the core, and the cases pedophilia within the Catholic Church. The question remains, why not leave the church instead of encouraging them to excommunicate you?

O'BRIEN: By virtue of our baptism, we are in the church, we're in god's people. It's impossible to leave god's people. This is my home. This is my spiritual home. This is my family, my community. It's very hard to walk away from your family.

And so many of us are hopeful that change will come. People are ready for it. It's not enough for all of us to complain. We have to be the elements of change. When this came to me, again, I said, you know what, I have to do something. It's not enough to complain.

So I went online and found change groups and got out my checkbook and said I'm going to help bring about change in the church. I hope others in the pew with me will say it's time. It's time for us to take an active stand on where we want our church today.

WHITFIELD: Jules, yesterday in Great Britain, as the Pope is visiting, he shook hands with a female priest. Yet the view is this pontiff doesn't necessarily agree with women being ordained as priest. In the back of your mind, is there hope if there is a groundswell of support that it might happen during Pope Benedict's leadership?

HART: I would find that incredible if it would happen. The church doesn't seem to move quickly, not in terms of decades, but in terms of centuries. But if he would make the change, I think that would be remarkable. And I think the women in the movement would say, that's the holy spirit at work.

WHITFIELD: Sheila, what is your hope with Pope Benedict? O'BRIEN: As Jules said, things move slowly. We hope that the holy spirit will move the hearts and minds of everybody in the church. We wait in joyful hope, as we say at mass. We wait in joyful hope. We continue to listen to the holy spirit and hope we see it in our time.

WHITFIELD: Sheila, as a result of your op-ed have you heard from anyone within the Catholic Church?

O'BRIEN: Hundreds.

WHITFIELD: How about within the Catholic Church in terms of that challenge of excommunicating you?

O'BRIEN: As you might imagine, it was an inventive lead for the piece for the people who might read it. Yes, I have heard from a lot of priests. It's a tough job. You are probably over 60, you are probably alone in that rectory. You are overworked and underpaid and exhausted.

They, if you ask, they would welcome a change in the priesthood because there's out there trying to get parishes together. I have heard from lots of priests and hundreds of people across the country, the letters, the emails. It took me about ten days to answer that mail from people who say, yes, we want change. These people aren't crazy. They love their church. We need to have people do that.

WHITFIELD: Thanks to both of you ladies. Appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Thank you for having us.

HART: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And in the next hour we'll be joined by CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen. He'll be addressing this very question and we'll get a little bit more detail from his point of view from his sources at the Vatican as to what kind of hope there might be with the leadership of Pope Benedict.

Also, hunting for a job, finding a scam instead -- how to protect yourself from frauds in the want ads, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK, so if you are one of the millions of Americans searching for a job, beware of scammers posing as employers or headhunters. Joining me right now in Atlanta is career expert Debra Shigley.

Oh, my gosh, there are lots of red flags. You are without a job, you are trying to pay your bills and make ends meet and look for a job. Now you are vulnerable to people who want to take advantage of you?

DEBRA SHIGLEY, CAREER EXPERT: Yes. People are desperate and people are trying to take advantage. WHITFIELD: So you get online. When you're searching for a job, checking out the social media, twitter accounts, and Facebook. And there are messages that could be sent to you in that form that can be wrong?

SHIGLEY: The Twitter scams are a whole new take on this work from home scam. You might see a lot of tweets from the same company saying "Work from home, make money in your pajamas, get rich quick."

WHITFIELD: Sounds enticing.

SHIGLEY: But it's just an invitation to join basically a pyramid scam. It's no job here, just a scam.

WHITFIELD: People are relying on e-mails. They can't wait to hear from a perspective employer via e-mail, but there are ways you can get tricked there to.

SHIGLEY: A lot of times you post your resume on a site like monster.com and scammers access these resumes and send you an unsolicited e-mail that says go to this website and do a credit check. It's a typical fishing scam.

But also, if the e-mail looks fake, are there spelling errors, sometimes the logo looks fake. You need to do serious investigation if it looks unsafe.

WHITFIELD: You mentioned credit report. Some folks are being asked whether they could divulge their credit report information or Social Security numbers. That's got to be the red flag there. Don't give up your Social Security number.

SHIGLEY: A lot of big fortune 500 companies require a Social Security number to apply.

WHITFIELD: Just to apply?

SHIGLEY: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Forget that. It's too risky.

SHIGLEY: There's a lot of security measures in place. If you are on a job sight like a craigslist or something like that and somebody is asking for a Social Security number of bank accounts or any other personal information up front, it's a very big red flag.

WHITFIELD: I can't believe people would take that seriously. I guess when you are desperate and looking for a job, and you say whatever information you need, I'm employable and I'll work. I'll do it.

What about wiring money? If someone asks you to send money to secure a job, you have to say no.

SHIGLEY: Absolutely, you have to say no. A lot of times these scammers make it look legitimate. They include a lot of information describing the company, where they are from that makes it seem legitimate. A lot of times, it's a check processing scam. They send you a check, wire money back to them as your job. But the check is fake. Your check bounces, and you end up out of the money you sent them.

WHITFIELD: What about job hunters, head hunters, recruiters who say hey, hire me, but for a fee up front first.

SHIGLEY: Big red flag. You don't want to pay recruiters up front. We have seen this from modeling scams, agents, these people saying they can help you find a job.

The new twist is with federal job scams. People are claiming that they have access to special listings or they can provide you with special training materials, things like that -- all that information is available online free of charge from federal websites. Check out toftc.com. It is a great website. So many things you want to look out for.

WHITFIELD: So is this taking off, this type of scam industry is taking of like we haven't seen before?

SHIGLEY: Yes, especially because people are out of jobs. Even things we've seen in the past, mystery shoppers. FDC is putting out a warning saying this is targeted to recent college grads because people are out of work. Be mindful and do your investigation.

WHITFIELD: Deborah Shigley, thanks so much, keeping it smart and safe. Appreciate it.

SHIGLEY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Look at the top stories now. Freed American hiker Sarah Shourd addressed the media today in Amman before getting on a plane heading for the United States. Shourd was one of three Americans held in an Iranian prison. She was released this week. Her fiancee and a friend are still being held as suspected spies in Iran.

She thanked all the people who worked hard to secure her release. She said she hoped the other two Americans would get out as well.

BP's broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is about to be permanently sealed. Today BP officials pumped cement into the bottom of the well. If the test is successful, the well will officially be declared dead. It ruptured five months ago.

Toyota reached a settlement with two families involved in a fatal car crash near San Diego last year. They were all in a Lexus when their car accelerated uncontrollably, causing it to crashed. The accelerator probably became trapped by an improperly installed floor mat. The amount of the settlement has not been revealed. Toyota reportedly did not admit liability, however.

Census numbers are out this week, and they confirm what millions of Americans already know -- the nation's poverty rate is on the rise. Behind each number is a face and a story. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some sobering information. This week the nation's poverty rate soared to 14.3 percent. That's the highest in more than 15 years.

CNN's Poppy Harlow looks at the statistics and the people behind those numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: The report this week showing us that nearly 44 million Americans are living in poverty in this country. It wasn't that big of a surprise, but to understand what it means, you have to go far beyond the numbers and see the reality of the people living in the situation.

We spent the day with Ann Valdez. She has been fighting to get out of poverty since she was 18 years old. Here is part of our conversation with Ann and her son Joseph.

ANN VALDEZ, LIVES ON $5,000 A YEAR: Poverty is very serious. It's very demoralizing. It's made to feel demoralizing, hurtful. There's so much going on, and there's no jobs available. No one wants to live the way we have to live.

HARLOW: How do you get by every day? What do you live on?

VALDEZ: I live on approximately $5,000 a year. Sometimes I have to skip a meal to save money so my son Brian has what he needs. If it wasn't for my sister, my son would not have half of his school supplies or clothing for school.

HARLOW: Joseph, how has it been for you? Do you feel like you grew up in poverty?

JOSEPH VALDEZ, ANN'S SON: Yes. But I wasn't deprived a good childhood. So I'm very happy. It doesn't matter where you come from. If you have a good childhood, money isn't an issue.

VALDEZ: I gave everything I can to my children. If I had to go without, it's OK, as long as my children had.

HARLOW: If you could have one message to send to the people watching, what would it be?

VALDEZ: My message would be, never judge a book by its cover. Never make assumptions. Come outside. Meet the people in your community where you live. Meet the people in the communities where you work and in the communities you represent.

HARLOW: See the face of poverty.

VALDEZ: See the face of poverty.

HARLOW: And Ann has been out of work since 2005. Her unemployment benefits ran out four years ago. She has two years of college but says she still cannot find fulltime work.

And probably the most troubling part of this entire report looking at poverty is American children are struggling more than ever before. More than 15 million American children, those under the age of 18, are now living in poverty in this country.

You can see a lot more of this and what the government is trying to do here on CNNMoney.

In New York, Poppy Harlow reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Poppy. And for more information, go to CNNMoney.com.

Fitting into the present without forgetting the past -- being Latino in America and struggling to hold on to their heritage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In the southern U.S., the Hispanic population grew 34 percent from 200 t0 2006. In North Carolina alone, it jumped nearly 55 percent. When Bill and Betty Garcia moved to the suburbs of Charlotte 16 years ago, they knew they were leaving their comfort zone.

Now they fear their boys are struggling with what it means to be Latino. CNN's Soledad O'Brien has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bill Garcia was born in New York City. He's Puerto Rico. Betty moved to New York from the Dominican Republic when she was nine. They met on the subway in 1988, their first date at the Museum of Modern Art. They still call New York home.

BETTY GARCIA: I knew that when I left New York I was leaving a Latino neighborhood. I knew I was leaving home. I was a little saddened. Yes, a little saddened.

O'BRIEN: The Garcia's are part of a wave of Latino's moving away from traditional urban centers and settling in new regions like the south. When they arrived in Charlotte, they felt like strangers.

BILL GARCIA: This is one of the challenges we faced here. People not even knowing about Dominican Republic.

O'BRIEN: Like where is it?

BILL GARCIA: Yes, where is it on the map, exactly.

O'BRIEN: The Garcia's had built a successful life in Charlotte. Bill made a career working for non-profit organizations, Betty is a schoolteacher. But their new life has come at a price -- their teenage sons are more interested in fitting in than connecting with their Latino roots.

BILL GARCIA: Did you see these pictures? This is me at high school.

O'BRIEN: Bill and Betty do what they can to expose the boys to their Latino heritage. Today, they are trying to get Brian and Andrew to create a photo collage, part of an upcoming art exhibit on Hispanic culture in Charlotte. But Brian has little interest, and no interest in attending the opening of the art exhibit.

BILL GARCIA: So, do you want to go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

BETTY GARCIA: OK. I'll see you later.

It's been a little of a struggle for me to get them into it.

O'BRIEN: Like a tug of war sometimes.

BETTY GARCIA: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: To learn more about Bill and Betty Garcia, watch "Latino in America," the Garcia's tonight and Sunday night 8:00 p.m. eastern time right here on CNN.

They are voting for their future, Afghan civilians heading to the polls. They are surrounded by security. We take you there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at the top stories right now.

Pope Benedict XVI met today in London with five clergy sex abuse victims. The Pope also expressed his deep sorrow for the abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church. Today is the third day of his visit to Britain.

Toyota reached a settlement with two families after a crash that killed four family members. The victims were in a Lexus sedan that crashed on a freeway near San Diego last year. An investigation found the accelerator pedal probably got stuck on a floor mat that was installed incorrectly. Toyota issued a massive recall to address possible floor mat problems.

And four days after she was released by Iran on bail, American hiker Sarah Shourd has made her first public comments. Before leaving Oman for the United States, Shourd said she hoped her two fellow American hikers would be released soon. Iran plans to put them on trial on spy charges. The polls are closed right now, but security was tight across Afghanistan today. Voters cast their ballots despite threats and kidnappings by the Taliban.

CNN's Ivan Watson is live from the capital of Kabul now. So where were the incidents and did they impact the voting at the polling stations?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. In fact, nearly 20 percent of the polling stations across the country were closed because of security threats, Fredricka. Kabul fortunately was relatively calm. But, we are counting from Afghan official sources at least 12 civilians killed, descriptions of more than 100 Taliban artillery attacks, roadside bombs in the north, east, and west of the country.

There was another big issue, here, and that was the reports of cheating and fraud at the polls in large part because of last year. There was a presidential election and more than a million ballots thrown out believed to have been counterfeit. Take a listen to what one voter had to say to us about his expectations for today's vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): My expectations are not very high for this election because I know there's old parliament members and some backroom dealers will be elected. I'm hopeful that some good people will also get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, Fredricka, there are more than 2,500 candidates competing for 249 seats in parliament, so there is enthusiasm clearly among the candidates.

We got some figures from the election commission here. They said more than 3.6 million votes were cast, and that say that is 40 percent voter turnout. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: That's impressive. I wonder when they might be able to get through the votes, count the ballots, and determine winners?

WATSON: A very good question. Elections in Afghanistan are messy. Election officials telling us they are not expecting final results until at least October 31. Why? It's awfully difficult to get the thousands of ballot boxes in on the terrible road system from mountains of the Hindu Kush on the backs of donkeys.

Also, we can expect quite a bit of arguments, debates over the results themselves given the large amount of reports of fraud at the polls that I was hearing from the candidates themselves. One of the big complaints, they were complaining of the ink to voted, a lot of people were saying it was washing off within minutes just with water after they voted. They think people could vote repeatedly as a result.

WHITFIELD: Ivan Watson, thanks so much, in Kabul. Appreciate that.

Dog owners are in a twitter with the latest way to supervise Fido. CNN's Gary Tuchman takes us to the "Edge of Discovery."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Roscoe. Thanks to his high-tech tag he's learning a new trick -- how to tweet.

RACHEL COOPER, MATTEL: When I'm at work, I able to just hop on Twitter and I can see what my dog is up to.

TUCHMAN: These pups are pawing away at a keyboard, though. They're tags have a motion sensor and microphone that can tell when they move or bark.

RON BAGLEY, DESIGN DIRECTOR, MATTEL: Data is sent from the tag to the antenna and then the software evaluates this data coming in and determines an appropriate tweet to send to your dog's Twitter page.

TUCHMAN: So now you'll know when your dog is taking a nap, chasing its tail or even chasing away the mailman. It might be a novelty toy, but developing it was doggone tough.

BAGLEY: We spent many days in many different homes with dogs, trying these on, putting these on dog's collars and having them sit still, then run around. We would test very little dogs like Chihuahuas on up to big dogs like Great Dane, and this helped us to tune the microphone to pick up on the bond range of volume, decibel level.

TUCHMAN: Cutting-edge technology that might end up a chew toy.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, time for "CNN Equals Politics," an update now. We are keeping an eye on all the latest headlines on the CNN.com Political Ticker and here is what's crossing right now.

Sarah Palin led a Republican pep rally of sorts in Iowa. Appearing at a party fundraiser, she told the crowd this was their time. She also said voters should not wait for political playbooks to be handed down from the elites. She also talked about getting to Delaware soon to support Christine O'Donnell.

After the speech, Palin talked to reporters about politics in her home state of Alaska. She said Lisa Murkowski's plan to run as a write-in candidate was a futile effort. Murkowski lost in the Republican primary to Joe Miller who was backed by Palin and the tea party movement. And there is actually a primary today in Hawaii. The intrigue is on the Democrats side where they are choosing a gubernatorial candidate. Democrats are hoping to recapture the governor's mansion in president Obama's home state after eight years. Republican governor Linda Lingle is term-limited.

And tragedy in Texas -- a high school football player died last night after collapsing during football game. Reginald Garrett was the star quarterback for West Orange Stark High School. He collapsed just after throwing his second touchdown and was rushed to the hospital. He has a history of seizures. However, the cause of his death is being investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN COURTNEY, SUPERVISOR, BAPTIST HOSPITAL OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS: When he arrived about 8:30, 8:35, he wasn't pronounced until 9:40 or 9:45. His family was all there, of course. And it was devastating, lots of crying.

But then shortly after the game ended, my parking lot completely filled with people. The waiting room was full. The parking lot was full. There was cheer leaders, band members, all the coaches were there. It was just the entire community. It's like the entire football stadium came to the hospital to check on him.

We were trying our best to give them good news and comfort them. It was impossible. They were in the parking lot gathered in groups. They were singing hymns, they were praying. It was a touching scene. Hundreds of people showed up in support of this young man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, so heartbreaking. Of course, our hearts go out to the Garrett family.

In the meantime, a loud and clear message to the Pope about women and priesthood, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Lots of crazy stuff to talk about around the water cooler this week. Topping the list -- I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. This is a little different. A new ice cream shop opened. It's called Creme de Canna, specializing in marijuana filled ice cream. I'm not joking here.

The shop offers flavors like banana Vince Foster and triple chocolate brownie. The owner says most customers come back for seconds, thirds, even fourths. Hey, why not? How about fifths?

A Massachusetts woman went hunting for alligators this week in South Carolina, and then she bagged this giant, a 13 foot alligator weighing 1,025 pounds. Mary Ellen Christian battled the reptile for two hours before reeling it in with a fishing pole. She's says she's going to eat the meat and stuff and mount the body. Meet Dexter, now. Dexter is the cow on the right, a record holder, by the way. Dexter has been certified as the world's shortest cow. She is 33.5 inches tall. That's seven inches taller man the world's new shortest man. What? OK. Other new records include the largest collection of Smurf merchandise and the oldest gorilla in captivity, who happens to be 53 years old.

(WEATHER BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, as Pope Benedict continues his tour of Britain, he's getting some unsolicited advice. A group that wants the Catholic Church to ordain female priests has paid for ads on the sides of 15 London buses calling on the Pope to actually take some action.

Should the Catholic Church ordain women? As CNN's Carol Costello reports, that question is being raised here in America as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For most Catholics, this is curious -- women in priestly robes, preaching from the alter, consecrating the bread and wine, something considered a serious crime by the Catholic Church.

Gloria Carpeneto considers herself a Catholic priest, ordained thanks to an unnamed male bishop who secretly ordained the first female priests and bishops in 2002.

(on camera): Have you ever met the secret bishop?

GLORIA CARPENETO, ROMAN CATHOLIC WOMEN'S PRIESTS: No, because if anyone found out who he was, he would be done. It would be a tremendous personal risk for this bishop to come out.

COSTELLO (voice-over): According to canon lawyers, though, the secret bishop has automatically been excommunicated or banned from participating in the church because he knowingly violated church law. And certainly Vatican made that clear when it restated recently that ordaining women as priests was a grave offense, on the same level as a pedophile.

(on camera): When you saw that, what went through your mind?

CARPENETO: I was horrified. I was horrified. I thought for myself, I didn't like that notion of suddenly I'm in the swimming pool with people who had been accused of sexual abuse, crimes against children.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Father Joseph Tobin, employed by the Vatican to oversee religious work worldwide, says though the Vatican said the comparison was wrong, the ordination of women is still a serious crime.

REV. JOSEPH TOBIN, "CONGREGATION FOR RELIGIOUS": The Catholic Church has not arrived at a point where it believes it is the will of god. I think I have to accept that. COSTELLO: Even the threat of excommunication isn't stopping Catholic women from what they consider the priesthood. Carpeneto says there are now five bishops, 47 priests, 10 deacons, and 16 candidates in formation in the United States, all of them illegitimate in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

CARPENETO: What many people say to us is why don't you go somewhere elsewhere you're accepted?

COSTELLO (on camera): I was just going to ask you that. Why stick with Catholicism when it obviously isn't supportive of you?

CARPENETO: It's Catholicism where they need us.

COSTELLO (voice-over): And so they hold mass where they can, in their own homes or in non-Catholic churches, ministering to small, mostly female congregations. They say the traditional Catholic Church is not meeting their needs.

COSTELLO: If you could have a meeting with the Pope, Pope Benedict, what would you say to him?

CARPENETO: I'm not sure I'd like to have a seating with this pope because I don't think he's very open, and that's a huge roadblock.

COSTELLO (voice-over): It's the kind of spiritual roadblock that Carpeneto was trying to remove. The Catholic Church is resisting.

(on camera): Is it up to God?

CARPENETO: Yes, I think it is up to God. And I think God has said to me, you can be ordained.

(END VIDEOTAPE)