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Defense for Jerry Sandusky Could Rest Soon; Boy Survives Spear Through Skull; Microsoft's New Tablet Cutting in on Apple; Catholics Keep Faith Without Falling in Line; Romney Finishes Michigan Tour

Aired June 19, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: But we begin this hour in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where the defense in the child rape trial of Jerry Sandusky could rest as soon as tomorrow. Aside from the verdicts, no question looms larger than whether the defendant himself will actually testify.

So far Sandusky's lawyers have relied on character witnesses to answer prosecution testimony from a number of young men who say that Sandusky befriended them, molested them and, in some cases, threatened them if they spoke out.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has been in court all this morning. What's happening right now, Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well, the highlight, really, of the morning has been testimony called by the defense of two Pennsylvania state investigators who worked on this case. One of them is now retired. The defense grilling them over their techniques in how they questioned alleged victims in this case.

In particular, they concentrated on one, Accuser Number Four, and the defense was suggesting to the jury that these investigators were, in essence, telling the victims what to say, encouraging them, tainting them by talking about what other victims alleged victims may have said.

The defense attorney saying at one point they referred to an audiotape of Accuser Number Four in which the investigator is heard saying that you are doing well, saying words to the effect of you -- we are hearing very similar things, sometimes word for word from other alleged victims in this case and, in fact, at one point, told them we also heard others talk about actual oral sex.

But the investigators who were testifying denied to the defense as well as under cross-examination that they ever told victims what to say, that it was very difficult to get them to talk.

In fact, one investigator said that he went to the door of alleged Victim Number Four. At first, this young man wouldn't speak to him at all and said that he crawled up in a fetal position on his sofa. That was a very powerful moment, Kyra.

Another moment was when he called nine character witnesses to speak on Jerry Sandusky's behalf. One of them said that she went to The Second Mile and said that Accuser Number Four in high school had a reputation, as she put it, of being dishonest and embellishing stories.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Wow. OK, so we are hearing so much now in the courtroom, the various stories that are coming forward. We are hearing for the first time the details from you.

Susan, as you know, when this all started, that there was that compelling interview with Bob Costas on NBC with Jerry Sandusky. We thought that was pretty mind-blowing.

Now, I understand that there is an outtake from that interview that has gotten out. I want to take a listen to this, if you don't mind, and then ask you about how the prosecution might use this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB COSTAS, NBC NEWS: So it is entirely possible that you could have helped Young Boy A in some way that was not objectionable while horribly taking advantage of Young Boy B, C, D and E. Isn't that possible?

JERRY SANDUSKY, FORMER PENN STATE ASSISTANT FOOTBALL COACH (via telephone): Well, you might think that. I don't know.

And in terms of my relationship with so many, many young people, I would that there are many young people who would come forward, many more young people who would come forward and say that my methods and what I had done for them made a very positive impact on their life.

And I didn't go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I've helped. There are many that I didn't have -- I hardly had any contact with who I have helped in many, many ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Susan, this obviously is creating a lot of buzz. What do you think? Will prosecutors use this outtake?

CANDIOTTI: Certainly, it is subject to interpretation, what exactly he meant by that.

Here's the only way it appears it could be used. NBC News says that this tape has been subpoenaed by prosecutors. It would appear it could only be used during a rebuttal case and that would be only if the defense perhaps either put Jerry Sandusky on the stand or perhaps aired another excerpt that already aired in court or this very excerpt and then the state could cross-examine or rebut it by putting this into the record.

So it is still questionable as to whether the jurors will hear this piece of tape that never actually aired on NBC until very recently, once it was subpoenaed. PHILLIPS: And, you know, decision is still being made whether Sandusky will take the stand or not. We're talking a lot about that. What about Mrs. Sandusky?

CANDIOTTI: Well, we are also waiting to hear that, too. However, I just got word in my ear that she was seen walking into court. Now, whether that means, in fact, that she's getting ready to testify, we might find out before the day is done.

PHILLIPS: All right, let us know, Susan. We'll stay in touch with you. Appreciate it so much.

Let's talk about slavery. It's still a very real problem. We're talking about human trafficking. We just learned that in a few hours the State Department will release its annual report on where countries rank in their efforts to fight human trafficking.

But here's the reality. More than 12 million people are taken, sold, and forced into hard labor or exploited for sex. That's more people than the population of a number of countries.

Fifty-six percent of those modern day slaves are women and young girls. And if you think well, this doesn't happen in my town? Think again. Because we are not just talking about foreign countries and big cities here. Investigators are now seeing a surge in human trafficking in the Midwest, right in America's Heartland.

Deb Feyerick has been investigating the story for us. So, Deb, the Midwest? Really? Why and where exactly?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It is pretty striking. You think about it. Minneapolis-St. Paul is actually among the 13 top places in the nation for a child in adolescent sex trafficking.

Many people think that child sex trafficking doesn't exist in the United States and, yet, it does. Teenage girls, many of them who are runaways, have grown up in our communities, get swept up in the trade.

The girls may be as young as 12-years old and often they are targeted by pimps who know where to find them, essentially kidnap them and then sell them for sex. They are kept isolated. These girls are moved from city to city.

We spoke with several prostitution survivors. All of them were in their teens when they began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMARA VANDERMOON, SURVIVOR OF TEEN PROSTITUTION: There's so many men out here who prey on young women, who, you know, that excites them or it's something sexual for them. They are just -- I was just a baby. I was 12.

FEYERICK: By a show of hands, how many of you were raped?

How many of you have scars because of what you went through, physical scars? Emotional scars? How many?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: All of these women say that they got into this and, before they knew it, it had simply taken control over their life, Kyra, and you have a lot of police, a lot of authorities who are sweeping in and trying to stop this because it is on the verge of becoming somewhat of an epidemic, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So how bad is it getting in the Midwest? And why exactly this part of the country?

FEYERICK: Well, it is a hub. When you think of Minneapolis-St. Paul, it is a very busy area because of its highways, for example. What you have is a number of people, millions, as a matter of fact, who are crossing.

It is an easy route for traffickers. There's a busy shipping port, year-round conventions and sporting events. The online adult websites are actually so brazen that they advertise game-day specials.

People come to the Midwest because they think, hey, they are not going to get caught in the Midwest. It is really a very interesting dynamic as to what's going on. People think there's safety and people think there is anonymity.

PHILLIPS: Deb Feyerick, thanks so much.

And we want to point out that there are a number of resources for human trafficking victims and their families. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center is a toll-free national hotline. Here's the number for you -- 1-888-373-7888, a hotline which is funded by the Department of Human Services provides emergency assistance, 24/7, by the way, in nearly 200 languages.

This just in. That Canadian porn actor who is suspected of dismembering a Chinese student is facing his first hearing today. There he is, right there.

Luka Magnotta was actually flown to Canada from Germany where he was arrested. Magnotta faces a number of charges, including first- degree murder in the death of Jun Lin and sending body parts to Canadian political parties and schools.

He is expected to appear before a judge in Montreal via a video- link at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. We will follow it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And just a quick note for all of you heading out the door, you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone or, if you are heading to work, you can also catch CNN live from your desk top. All you have to do is go to CNN.com/TV.

All right, Roger Clemens, not guilty. A federal jury ruled that the former star pitcher didn't lie to Congress when he told them that he didn't use performance-enhancing drugs, so Clemens is clean, at least in the eyes after federal jury, but the court of public opinion is a completely different animal.

Marty Noble, a columnist for MLB.com and senior member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the group that actually votes on the Baseball Hall of Fame, is joining us via Skype.

So, Marty, does this clear Clemens? I guess, you know, there are the purists, right, in baseball and then there's the fans. Is he cleared in the eyes of all of them? Or one group at least?

MARTY NOBLE, SENIOR MEMBER OF THE BASEBALL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: Not all of them, certainly. I don't believe. I think that my sense of it is that Roger Clemens will have a difficult time getting in the Hall of Fame right away and I don't know that he's any sort of likely Hall of Fame inductee.

At this point, his career doesn't mean what it once meant. There's nothing wrong with his statistics. His statistics are beyond reproach. He is one of those people that you look at him and you say, OK, he is a Hall of Famer. You don't look up anything.

But when you consider what is nothing more than suspicion because nothing has been proven and he hasn't admitted anything about cocaine -- I'm sorry -- not cocaine, but steroids -- he hasn't admitted a thing, so we don't know, but we suspect.

PHILLIPS: So it is a pretty impressive list, if you look at it, for next year. You've got Clemens. You've got Barry Bonds. You've got Sammy Sosa. But all three of them have been linked, one way or another, to steroid use. So will Clemens get your vote?

NOBLE: No.

PHILLIPS: He won't. And why not?

NOBLE: None of the three will. I came to this conclusion about a year ago. The way I always judge people for candidates for the Hall of Fame is this. If there is any doubt in my mind about statistics, about was he the best player here, was he the best player, is he deserving, if there was a question, I didn't vote for the guy. If there wasn't, I voted for them.

Now, there are questions, whether they're based on only suspicions and, in the case of these three people, it is only suspicion, but -- I can't see myself voting for them now.

I think that a growing number of guys in our association feel that way. There's no way to tell unless you sit down with all 400- some-old people who vote and, if they were to give you their honest opinion.

But I don't think that you will see any of those three people do much better than Mark McGwire has done at this point.

PHILLIPS: Yeah, he still hasn't gotten into the Hall of Fame. There are 500 votes. How much of the vote do you have to get in order to get into the Hall of Fame? And can you use Mark McGwire as an example? What's the most number of votes?

NOBLE: Three-quarters of the voting membership have to agree that a guy's a Hall of Famer for him to be elected.

I don't think that -- I don't even know what McGwire's numbers are, but he's nowhere close and he's very much like the other guy. He finally did admit that he used steroids. I think it was too late for him.

I think his behavior in front of the Senate when he was saying, "I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to talk about the future." I think that irritated some people, not to the point that they didn't vote for him, but when he finally did say that I did use. Now, he's not getting in.

I don't think that most of the guys will get in, most of the guys who anyone has any suspicions about.

PHILLIPS: It puts their ability into question. That's for sure. Marty Noble, thanks so much.

And just a reminder -- Roger Clemens would need 75 percent of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame. We just mentioned that. That's out of 500 or so votes.

You are never going to guess where millions of dollars in Medicare payments have ended up. In Cuba. Federal prosecutors in Miami have charged one man so far. They say he is at the center of a multimillion dollar Medicare fraud scheme.

"The Miami Herald" reports that Oscar Sanchez helped funnel more than $30 million through Canadian banks right into Havana. It is the first time Medicare fraud money has been traced to the Cuban banking system.

Court records state that suspects in this operation actually opened as many as 15 bank accounts under false names, including one name -- Bill Clinton.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It is pretty obvious that Bashar al-Assad is not acting alone when it comes to the brutal battles in Syria. The question is, who is helping him and where is he getting all the weapons and support?

President Obama pressed Russian president, Vladimir Putin, about ships in the water and the cargo onboard. It all came down at the G- 20 summit in New Mexico.

Foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is joining from us the State Department. Jill, what's the deal? The ships in question, are they carrying weapons for Assad's military or is it exaggeration? JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we have to go with the newest information that we have. The ship that was carrying helicopters has now, we understand, returned.

It is on its way to returning to its base in Kaliningrad and one of the reasons is that the insurance that was on that ship carrying refurbished helicopters supposedly back to Syria was pulled by the insurance company because they said that the nature of that trip back to Syria with helicopters dictated that they just simply stopped the insurance. So -- they are headed back.

Now, remember we were talking about two other ships that supposedly were carrying weapons and were going to be on their way to Syria. The spokesperson for the Black Sea fleet, which is where those ships would have been going, tells CNN that all ships from the Black Sea fleet are engaged in everyday activities and located within the ports where they are based.

And specifically on one of those ships, the Cesar Kunikov, that came up a lot, he says that it went out for a planned training, but that it is going to be back in port tomorrow.

So the Russians are obviously shooting down, pun not intended, any implication that they are trying to get involved in this fight.

That said, they have supplied in the past weapons to the Syrian government and the United States says that those helicopters -- look if they are old, if they are new, they still kill people, so they should not be sending them in and breaking in arms embargo.

PHILLIPS: All right. In addition to this subject matter, when Putin and Obama met, any progress, anything positive to come out of that meeting?

DOUGHERTY: You know, the only thing, Kyra, that I can see that was positive was you had a statement that they both are against violence and that they both want some type of political transition and that the transition is how you get there and they do not agree on that, apparently, at all at this point.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jill Dougherty from the State Department. Appreciate it so much.

For the latest national security report, all you have to do is log onto CNN.com/securityclearance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Massive wildfires in Colorado and North Carolina are keeping firefighters pretty busy. New Bern, a blaze that began as a controlled burn in the Croatan National Forest, got pretty much out of control. It burned more than 10,000 acres.

Then more heat and wind made matters worse for firefighters battling the wildfire near Ft. Collins, Colorado. So far, the Hyde Park fire has burned more than 58,000 acres and is about 50 percent contained, at this point.

President Obama is behind closed doors in Mexico this hour with 18 of his fellow world leaders. It is the second and final day of the G-20 summit and European debt is issue one.

But it is not the only issue. We mentioned the U.S./Russian talks on Syria already and, later today, Mr. Obama meets, one-on-one, with the Chinese president.

CNN's Dan Lothian is our man in Los Cabos today. So, Dan, are the leaders doing anything tangible about the euro crisis?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think they are, a couple of things. First of all, they seem to be warming up to this idea of having an integrated banking system.

As you know, there are 17 countries in the euro and it is difficult to get them all on the same page. In fact, Angela Merkel, who has been sort of a point person in trying to stabilize the eurozone crisis, says that it is a herculean task to get them all to agree to something.

So now, they seem to be warming up to this idea of this integrated banking system which could potentially mitigate some of the problems going forward.

But secondly, countries adding additional money to this $455 billion fund, which essentially is to help countries dealing with the impact, the fallout, of the eurozone crisis. So you saw China kicking in more than $40 billion, $10 billion coming from Brazil, South Africa and some other countries.

So there seems to be this sense of urgency that there needs to be quick action in the U.S. is saying this is something Europe needs to fix on its own.

PHILLIPS: And what more do we know about this afternoon meeting with Hu Jintao?

LOTHIAN: Well, it is an important meeting, the 12th time that President Obama will have met with President Hu Jintao. They will be talking, obviously, about the economy.

China, very concerned about the eurozone crisis and the drag that it could cause on its economy, in particular, Europe being one of their leading export markets and, so, they will be talking about that.

In addition, they will be talking about national security issues, such as Iran, Syria which has been a big subject, and also the role that China can play in dealing with the situation in North Korea.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dan Lothian there in Los Cabos for us. Appreciate it. We will follow, obviously, everything out of the G-20 summit.

A new report on immigration in the United States shows a first. For the first time ever, there are more Asian immigrants coming to the U.S. than Hispanics. A Pew Research Center report shows that 430,000 Asians came to the U.S. in 2010. That's compared to 370,000 Hispanics.

The report also shows why Asians are coming to the U.S. Thirty- one percent say that they come for family reasons, 28 percent educational opportunities. Only 21 percent say it was for employment opportunities.

And a sad thought for our active-duty military and the military vets. They soon could be without essential aid if Congress has its way. I'm talking about food stamps. Both the House and Senate plan to cut billions of dollars from food stamp programs.

Meanwhile, our military men and women and their families are relying on that aid. According to the "Huff Post," just last year, $100 million in food stamps were used on military bases alone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Nails in the skull, swallowing magnets, marbles up the nose, you name it, E.R. Doctors pretty much have seen it all. But this was a first for doctors in Miami. A boy shot in the head with a spear after a storm accident. Take a look at the x-ray. It is a three-foot spear right through 16-year-old Lopez's skull.

Medical correspondent, Liz Cohen is here.

How the heck did this happen?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: As we understand, it was a fishing expedition and they were using spears to catch the fish and instead the spear caught his skull.

PHILLIPS: OK. That's how it happened. How does someone even survive an injury like this? How -- where -- you know, if you can explain where the spear entered and -- how they even dealt with it.

COHEN: Sure. You look at that and you think, how can he live through a spear going through his head. Here's what happened. It went in about an inch above his right eye. So sort of somewhere sort of around here. And went straight through the back. So it stayed on one side of his head or if we look at it this way, it went in here and then out the back exactly staying on the right-hand side. That's a good thing. When an injury stays on one side of the brain, that's really good news. And it is all about what it hits and doesn't hit. If it doesn't hit a major blood vessel --

PHILLIPS: How does it not hit anything major?

COHEN: Because we think about it this was very thin from what I understand. It didn't hit a major blood vessel and didn't cause breathing. It didn't hit something like the area of the brain that controls breathing. So it didn't stop his ability to breathe. The only thing that doctors say he's probably going to suffer from this is clumsiness in his left arm. When he came into the hospital, he was talking -- communicating with a spear in his head.

PHILLIPS: One blessed 16-year-old. How is he doing now? What's the recovery on this? Making a big buzz and making all the network shows.

COHEN: Right. Pray like that, you are going to be -- talked about.

PHILLIPS: The buzz.

COHEN: Exactly. We were told he's doing quite well. He is out of intensive care. He is a regular hospital floor. The only real ramification of this is possible clumsiness in his left hand. Again, it is a matter of what it misses and what it hits. Also, a spear in some ways is better than a bullet wound because a bullet can go in and shatter and you have all sorts of little pieces going all sorts of places. This is one thin piece going through. And it didn't -- if it hit the other side of his brain, he might have had difficulty speaking. But it didn't. It stayed on the right side of his brain.

PHILLIPS: It will be interesting to hear from him, from his doctors. Also, if -- you know, if he was -- with his buddies who made the big mistake. I bet that person is feeling pretty guilty if he didn't do it himself.

COHEN: He will have to ask his buddies to explain what happened because he doesn't remember anything. He doesn't remember the incident at all. Maybe that's a blessing, too.

PHILLIPS: We will follow it.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

You can find out more about this and other medical news stories. All you have to do is visit CNN.com/health.

New research shows that gastric bypass surgery for some patients double it is risk of alcohol abuse. But the risk only apparent two years after the procedure and only with one type of surgery. Study published today in the journal of the American medical association and it examined the drinking habits of nearly 2,000 obese adults before and after the surgery. Nearly 8 percent participants had alcohol use disorder before the surgery. By the end of the second year, it had arisen to nearly 10 percent. Risk was twice as high among patients who underwent the routine bypass procedure where parts of the stomach and small intestine are reduced. Doctors and researchers speculate the uptake is due to increased sensitivity to alcohol and patients returning to pre-surgery drinking habits.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Mike Tyson is heading to Broadway. Big Mike apparently is teaming up with Spike Lee now to bring his show to the big Apple. The former heavyweight champ performed his one-man show, "Mike Tyson, Undisputed Truth," in Las Vegas. He came on to CNN to talk with me about his premiere back in April. He spoke candidly about his transformation that inspired that one-man show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE TYSON, CHAMPION BOXER: It is just incredible when I see these pictures of me in the past and this fighter guy, this baddest man on the planet. The transformation to who I am now, that's pretty weird. Like at myself now and say, wow, I would be nervous to be in a room alone with that guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: I loved doing that interview. He is a totally different man, that's for sure.

Spike Lee said he caught wind of Mike's Vegas show from his cameraman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, FILM DIRECTOR: He just happened to walk by, five minutes to the curtain came down and went in and was mesmerized, called me up and said, Spike, you have to see this. It closed and I couldn't get to Las Vegas. I called, where are you? Are you in England? I'm Poland. He was in Poland.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: I understand it was -- emotional.

LEE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Painful.

LEE: Roller coaster of human emotion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Tyson's "The Undisputed Truth" will be Spike Lee's -- debut as a director on Broadway. That show will run between July 31 through August 5.

Lot of people tried but failed. Just couldn't cut it. Look at, Apple, dominating the tablet world, has new heavyweight competitor. Take a look at this -- Surface. Microsoft unveiled its P.C. tablet yesterday. From the looks of it, the Surface just may cut into Apple's area and move on the iPad turf.

Let's get to Alison Kosik who is at the New York stock exchange.

What exactly does the surface have that the iPad doesn't?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, look at it. The way it is designed is different. That really separates it from most of the other tablets out there. You look at the surface. Its case is built in and folds down into a full keyboard. It also has a built-in stand to hold up the monitor part. There is a USB port on the surface. The iPad does not have a USB port. You look at the screen. There is a 10.6 high-definition screen on the surface. It is bigger than the iPad and has two cameras. It also has a brand-new operating system called Windows RT. It is a version of Windows 8 designed just for the surface. Important some that could be a selling point. For others, not so much.

PHILLIPS: So what do you think, is Microsoft a little late to the party? Considering that Apple dominates this.

KOSIK: That's a good question. You know what, a lot depends on the device itself as well as, you know, what else can you do with it? Meaning what -- how many apps are out there for this device. Right now the surface has fewer app than the iPad. That could grow. What's crucial is that it really needs one of the support systems. Like a community, what happened had years to build on. No doubt about it, there is room in the market for another tablet. Look how things have sort of grown over the years. You know, since the iPad came out in 2010, other tablets have had success. Apple has dominated then as it still does. Look at the android and other tablets. Today they are gaining ground and actually make up more than a third of the tablet market. The surface at this point really just has to prove itself and, of course, price is going to be very, very important with this. You know, other competitors have shown that they beat Apple on price. No word yet on what it will cost.

PHILLIPS: Thanks so much.

Just FYI, Windows is the operating system running on more than 90 percent of the world's computers and two-thirds of the Internet connected gadgets.

As for what's happening on Wall Street, let's take a look at the Dow, up 113 points.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Can you be a good Catholic without supporting every rule and edict from your pastor, bishop or the pope? Millions of Catholics who use contraception or support women priests or same-sex marriage would say yes. At a time when Rome is smacking down so- called radical nuns and U.S. bishops are taking on government officials, my colleague, Zoraida Sambolin, met some Catholics quietly keeping the faith without always following in line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: St. Paul the Apostle calls everyone to Sunday Mass. Even people who don't agree with every Catholic teaching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they are Catholic, they are Catholic. If they are not, they are not.

SAMBOLIN (on camera): So if they are Catholic, then they should be welcomed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.

(SINGING)

SAMBOLIN (voice-over): There's Maureen McGann, who thinks Catholics should allow women to be church leaders.

MAUREEN MCGANN, PARISHIONER: I liken it a little bit to the United States. I don't agree with everything our country does but I'm not going to join another country at this point.

SAMBOLIN: And Megan McKeever, who is a lesbian.

MEGAN MCKEEVER, PARISHIONER: I could never give up being Catholic any more than I could give up being a gay woman. So I have found way to reconcile those within me.

SAMBOLIN: Megan focuses on what she loves about a church, adheres to strict doctrines.

(on camera): I want you to tell me the position that the Catholic Church has on some of these things. I'm going to start with abortion. OK or not OK?

REV. GILBERT MARTINEZ, ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Not OK.

SAMBOLIN: What about women in leadership positions.

MARTINEZ: The church feels it doesn't have the authority to ordain women given the tradition, going back to the time of Jesus.

SAMBOLIN: How do you have them be a part of something that has such fundamental differences with the way I this live their lives?

MARTINEZ: You know, I don't -- I don't know if those differences are not fundamental. Because there -- question --

(CROSSTALK)

SAMBOLIN: These are big issues in the Catholic Church.

MARTINEZ: They're big issues but they're --

(CROSSTALK)

SAMBOLIN: In the Vatican.

MARTINEZ: Sure, but they are not -- for people living their lives daily, I mean, I think if they really -- engaged it for their lives they understood how -- what they believe and -- and -- how -- what their relationship is to these teachings. So -- they have kind of -- are at peace with that.

SAMBOLIN: Mark Esposito Esken says, the food pantry, offers churchgoers more than just charity.

MARK ESPOSITO ESKEN, ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE FOOD PANTRY: By allowing them to help them to live their faith and providing them, you know, nonjudgmental atmosphere, allowed to explore ministries, such as pantry or soup kitchen, that alleviates a lot of stress they may feel otherwise, if they were in an environment where they focus on dogma.

(SINGING)

SAMBOLIN: An approach that keeps them coming to Catholicism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Zoraida joining me now.

So what does the data show? Are Catholics in sync?

SAMBOLIN: They are not in line with the Vatican. Actually, there is data that shows Catholics are a little bit more liberal than non-Catholic's on certain issues. Really important issues. So when I throw up numbers here, it was Gallup poll focusing on the acceptability issues in the Catholic Church. So Catholics are virtually tied with non-Catholics when it comes to abortion, divorce, and stem cell research. But when you look at homosexual relationships, Catholics are more liberal than non-Catholics. They feel kind of the same way on pre-marital sex. The numbers are kind of high there. I will tell you, Kyra, in this particular church the key issue seemed to be a non-judgmental environment. There is a lot of dialogue that happened. It didn't matter the age of the person that we talked to, what they felt was that they were accepted for who they were regardless of whether they had had an abortion, had pre-marital sex or were gay.

PHILLIPS: You know, the other story we've been talking a lot about, the bishops trying to rein in the American nuns. The church that you visited in particular, what was the reaction to that?

SAMBOLIN: Well, I will say that Father Martinez had a very strong response to that because what he said was that the church was basically built on the backs of nuns, right? They're the ones who have ministered all over the world. For the church to take a strong line position to call them feminists, radicals and liberals was difficult. I attempted to talk to one of the nuns who served in that church and she didn't want to talk to me on camera. They want to see how the Vatican is going to figure this out. At the end of the day, a lot of folks that attend the church are hopeful that the Vatican will change their views on something. When you look at these numbers and you see how Catholics feel about these issues, that's what makes them believe that perhaps there's some hope for some change in the future. But the individual churches seem OK, it just seems when you're dealing with the Vatican on these moral issues.

PHILLIPS: Interesting.

Zoraida, thanks so much.

You can find a universe of thought about faith in the belief blog at CNN.com. All you have to do is type in religion.blogs.CNN.

The winner of Sunday's elections, the leader of the pro Euro, pro ballot New Democracy Party is holding talks with rivals in a bid to hammer things out. The key seems to be the anti-bailout party that came in second. An announcement could come as early as today. CNN will let you know.

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PHILLIPS: Well, if you are leaving the house right now, just a reminder you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. You can watch CNN live from your desktop. Go to CNN.com/tv.

Who would you pick to play Mitt Romney in TV? Take a second to think about it. The White House has picked their own Romney to stand in for the Republican candidate in mock debates. It's this guy. Take a look. Can you tell them apart? Yes, that's Massachusetts Senator John Kerry on the left. He's the White House's Mitt Romney. Now they're both from Massachusetts. They both have nice hair, they're both tall, and they both have been in a lot of debates. This ought to be interesting.

Mitt Romney is wrapping up a bus tour in his own state, Michigan. His talking tour has taken him through critical swing states.

CNN national correspondent, Jim Acosta, has been following along on the six-state tour.

Jim, do you think the Romney camp has gotten what they've wanted out of this tour so far?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think so, Kyra, yes. One thing that we've noticed from the Romney campaign and from the candidate himself throughout this entire bus tour is that he has stayed focused like a laser beam on the economy. He did that here in this town, Frankenmuth (ph). That is the theme of this town here. It brings me to my next point about what Romney has done during this bus tour. He's tried to loosen the collar and show the lighter side of his personality. Sometimes that has gotten him into some trouble. He poked some fun at himself on the airplane yesterday talking about how he said during the primaries the trees are the right height in Michigan. When they were landing yesterday, if you noticed when we were landing the trees are the right height. He made an odd, corny cultural message talking about the Bavarian message -- chicken and noodles. Some people in the press core were scratching their heads, chicken and noodles? During the speech he took a self-deprecating tone talking about how he's not the best public speaker trying to draw the contrast a little bit with the president who is, as he said, pretty eloquent. Here's what Romney had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're not here because I'm some spectacular speaker. Y'all know better than that. You're not here just because the Republican Party is the answer to all things. You know better than that. You know, instead, this is America and America is the answer to all good things and we are caring about our country. We want to get it on track again to care for ourselves and for the people of the world that love liberty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now I will tell you, Kyra, just on that chicken and noodles note, I did go inside the restaurant at the Bavarian village lodge and they did tell me the chicken on the menu is one of our specialties. We might have to let Mitt Romney off the hook on that one. Now the Obama campaign is going after Romney on some of the substance of the economy. I will say that there has been some substance in this trip. The Obama campaign has said, look, Mitt Romney throughout the whole course of this bus tour has not really laid out what he would do for the economy. The Romney campaign has said, no, that's not the case. They point to what Mitt Romney has said time and again about repealing Obama-care. Mitt Romney calls it Obama-care as do a lot of other people. They say, hey, that's part of his economic agenda and that's why we're seeing Mitt Romney hammer it over and over again. Later on today and he'll get back to things late injury on this weekend.

PHILLIPS: I asked you this yesterday as well. I'm curious -- Immigration -- did it creep itself back into the conversation as well? I know it's supposed to be all about jobs and the economy. We're mentioning health care. What about immigration?

ACOSTA: Right. It did come up this morning. Not at this event but in a radio interview that he did earlier this morning. He was asked about the White House policy change on deportations for young, illegal immigrants. What Romney said was very interesting. He said he believes that young people who serve in the military should be allowed to become permanent residents. So he did sort of set aside that as something he absolutely strongly believes in. Now whether that extends to college students or high school students he did not really say. That is another one of those sort of lingering issues, but he has said that once he gets into the White House if he's elected president, this would be one of the top things that he would work on. So not exactly addressing whether or not he agrees with the White House position on what transpired late last week but he is sort of carving out perhaps a new position for himself that he would perhaps grant some exceptions to some of these younger people who serve in the armed forces. One other thing, the Romney campaign, I should note, Kyra, did confirm that on July the 11th he will be speaking to the NAACP at a conference in Houston. That is something interesting that has cropped up today.

PHILLIPS: Jim Acosta, thanks so much.

Thanks for watching, everyone. You can continue the conversation with me on Twitter, @KyraCNN, or on Facebook.

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