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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Pope Francis' Inaugural Mass; New Threats To Steubenville Rape Victim

Aired March 19, 2013 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. You're looking at live pictures of St. Peter's Square.

This is CNN's special live coverage of the inaugural mass of Pope Francis.

The mass is now over. It has been really a very interesting morning. From the very beginning here, from the moment that Pope Francis left the Santa Marta Residence right here. You're actually looking at the video right now.

There's the pope kissing the first baby he kissed along the handoff right there. He is in an open air pope mobile going through St. Peter's square.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: If you missed any of it, it was one of those moments where you kind of gasped because you were really surprised that he was in an open pope mobile.

There he is. He went into the crowd. There's somebody who's sick and he went over to pray for them. He kissed him, offered a blessing -- a really remarkable moment.

The one time that we did see him get out of the pope mobile.

BERMAN: Which in and of itself --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because he's so unscripted. And we want more unscripted from our pope. And here it was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a great moment where he went down to the Tomb of St. Peter. I was just on that tour of the excavation. It is incredible because you can see the first Basilica of St. Peter's which is buried underneath the present day one, and then you go down even lower and there is the cemetery. What would have been an open-air cemetery like New Orleans cemetery, above ground cemetery, and there is this graffiti marked box, and in the writing it says Petrus and you see the fish symbols all over it.

And near as investigators can tell us that is the tomb of St. Peter and the bones of the saint. The pallium and the ring were placed on that tomb overnight, just there in front of where the pope is praying. He's now incensing that -- the outside of the tomb there. BERMAN: And the pallium and the ring were truly the actual ceremony that was formed -- the business side of the day was when he received the pallium and the ring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. He became pope the minute he accepted the nomination of the election in the conclave. But here are the two signs of his office that he was invested with today. The pallium made from lamb's wool.

This is the same pallium that Pope Benedict wore. And it's similar to the pallium that is given to all metropolitan archbishops throughout the world. So here in New York, Cardinal Dolan as archbishop of New York wears the pallium. All the archbishops in the United States wear the pallium.

And that's given to them, made of the same lamb's wool, theirs is a little bit different, but every year on feast of St. Peter and Paul on June 29th the pallium is given by the pope to new archbishops who are installed during the course of that year.

So this is a sign of unity of office, but a sign of the jurisdiction over the church, and then, the ring as the symbol that historically was used to seal papal decrees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, of course, this is a simpler ring. It was not gold, it was silver, gold plated from the 1960s, designed by Italian Enrico Manfrini. Interesting passed down from Paul VI his secretary. Recycled ring at that.

So once more this pope is simple in what he has done with the ceremony.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Which raises the question about why they would destroy the ring. Do you remember when you and John Allen were giving me all that heat because I was thinking I don't see why they have to destroy the ring? And here we have a recycled ring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Except it was not a papal ring. It was given by Paul VI --

CUOMO: Still a recycled ring. They shouldn't be destroying the rings and probably maybe Pope Francis won't want them to anymore, John, because he'll want to use them.

Now, another important piece of video, it's important to see, if we can move past the trappings for a second -- communion, central part of the catholic mass. Also of big symbolic importance for Pope Francis, whose message is a return to the simple spirituality that is the religion of Christ.

And here what we're seeing, as he offers up the liturgy of the Eucharist, is his taking bread and wine and making them transubstantiating them into the body and blood of Christ. Which for Catholics is the real deal, this is the most important part of the ritual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feed my sheep, feed my lamb.

BERMAN: And of course, right here --

SAMBOLIN: We're not expecting the pope to distribute communion, but he did, but to a specific group of people. He did not go out to the masses and distribute communion. Why was that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously everybody would have wanted to go to him. It would be very taxing on him, too.

And I think it's a way of extending the ministry. You go now, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, too. It's not just my job, it's all of our jobs.

CUOMO: This is where the pope was able to offer his speech, so to speak, to the laity after the gospel was read. It's called the homily, we have some sounds from him translated. Let's take a listen.

We don't. So, we'll paraphrase for you. He was going strong with the message of Saint Joseph. Today is the feast of Saint Joseph, and the idea of being a protector of all things, he talked about the weak and the poor. He talked about animals and ecology.

I believe we have some sound of it now. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): We are all protectors of creation, of the plan of God, written in nature, protectors of one another, of the environment.

Let us not allow the signs of destruction and death accompany our journey of this world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: These are live pictures now what's going on as the mass winds up and the pope prepares to leave the leadership delegation from over130 countries. You see the flags there, representing different places that have come to hear the message of Pope Francis.

One of the things we glossed over there, you saw when there were people at the altar and there was the pope presenting select communion to them, one of them had an all black vestments.

And, Ray, this is a very special leader, and him being there in this way is an outward sign of what Pope Francis wants.

RAYMOND ARROYO, EWTN: Right. It was at the moment of peace, the giving of peace, and it was the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew 1 of Constantinople.

And the fact that he is there, it is an important symbol of the healing and the beginning of the healing of that schism that happened over 1,000 years ago. You remember Pope John Paul II, Rota and encyclical, they may all be one, spring-boarding off of Christ's and remain together. He made it one of the centerpieces of this pontificate, John Paul did, to bring the east and west together, he being a man of the east.

We saw that continue with Pope Benedict. We are no doubt going to see it take on new force under the care of Pope Francis. And today, is a really important sign of that, this inaugural mass, the first time an ecumenical patriarch has been present at a papal inaugural mass.

SAMBOLIN: We're going to take a quick break here. As we leave you, in case you missed it, we're going to leave you with a little bit of Pope Francis' homily.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS: Let us protect Christ in our life, in order to protect others, in order to protect creation. The vocation of protecting does not regard just us Christians. It has the dimension that precedes and that is simply human in regards to everyone. It is protecting the entire creation, the beauty of creation, as the Book of Genesis tells us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back, everyone.

You're looking at live pictures from inside St. Peter's Basilica. There is Pope Francis.

SAMBOLIN: Moving swiftly, I might add.

BERMAN: Very quickly, a brisk pace. The pope has finished his inaugural mass, receiving the pallium and also the fisherman's ring.

SAMBOLIN: He's removed those vestments, though, now. And we understand that he's going to be meeting the delegation now, the representatives from different countries.

BERMAN: More than 130 countries are represented today. Various heads of state, there are princes, there are --

SAMBOLIN: I believe that's Argentina's president, yes? Am I right about that?

Argentina's president who had lunch with him yesterday when she arrived.

BERMAN: President Fernandez de Kirchner. And they did have lunch yesterday. And her relationship has not always been rosy, shall we say.

For the United States, Vice President Joseph Biden is there, our first Catholic vice president. He has led the American delegation, and also several members of Congress led by Nancy Pelosi. Speaker John Boehner was invited. He said he could not go because he had to take care of business in Washington.

But there are a lot of Americans there.

Also some controversial figures there, including, Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe.

Raymond Arroyo is sitting with us right now.

ARROYO: Look, this is the other side of the papacy. We saw him highlight that he's the successor of Rome. He mentioned that he was a bishop of Rome or the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome.

This is the head of the Vatican City State now welcoming the diplomatic corps.

You have to remember, this sea, the sea of Peter, has been reaching out to the world in a major diplomatic listening post for centuries. You're seeing that writ large here as the world, and its leaders, come forward to meet the new head of state. And we have to remember that he's not only a spiritual leader, he's also a temple leader of the Vatican City State.

SAMBOLIN: It is 132 dignitaries that he will be meeting. So it will take quite some time. We're going to continue to follow this, and when Vice President Joe Biden is present there, we're going to go back to that. In the meantime --

BERMAN: You never know what might happen when the vice president meets the pope.

SAMBOLIN: You just never know, you just never know.

ARROYO: Two great improvisers. We'll see what happens.

SAMBOLIN: That is true, very good point, Raymond.

All right. In the meantime, we're minding your business this morning.

Another tough morning on Wall Street. Stock futures indicated slightly lower opens. Cyprus is scheduled to vote on the proposed bailout today.

BERMAN: And when it comes to retirement, many Americans are in a bit of a crisis situation. People are not saving enough and that's really putting it mildly.

And that is an issue Christine Romans talks about constantly.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And there's a huge new report this morning sort of highlighting how severe this is when you look at how much people are putting away for retirement it simply is not enough. I mean, it's almost a crisis, quite frankly.

You've got 28 percent of people, 57 percent have less than $25,000 in savings. That is not enough.

About 12 percent of people, by the way, have more than $250,000 saved. That's where you want to be. But it's only about one in eight are there right now.

Let's talk about how confident people are for retirement. 2007, 10 percent said they were confident for retirement. You can see 2013, about 28 percent say they're not confident about saving for retirement.

Let me say that other way, more people are less confident today. John's squinting at that graphic. It means we're not saving enough is what it means.

And why? Job uncertainty, day-to-day expenses, people are just not making enough money every month to keep up with their expenses, and high debt. People still have too much debt. So that's where we are on this front.

I'm going to tweet out this. It's called EBRI (ph). It's sort of the seminal report on how much we're saving or not saving. It also, I think you guys, raises a lot of questions for the debate in Washington about what role government's going to have. Clearly, people are not planning for their later years. They're not saving enough for health care, enough for retirement.

What's the role of government going to be at a time when we're talking about shrinking the role of government in our lives?

BERMAN: So, what's the one thing we need to know about our money?

ROMANS: The one thing you need to know about your money today is the focus has really shifted again to Europe. The recession there is deepening. Cyprus set to become the fourth European country to get a bailout. It could be a headwind for U.S. stocks, but after the run-up we've seen lately, the market's been ripe for a pullback, so tread carefully here. Stock futures lower this morning.

SAMBOLIN: All right. Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SAMBOLIN: It is 45 minutes past the hour. Other stories that are making news this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMBOLIN (voice-over): We have a developing story. An explosion a few hours ago at the Hawthorne Army Depot. This is western Nevada. The spokesman tells CNN it happened during a Marine Corps training exercise, possibly during some kind of traffic accident. And there are injuries, we understand.

The army spokesman was quick to point out that the explosion did not happen where ammunition is stored. We're going to continue to follow that story for you.

BERMAN (voice-over): We have some good news this morning for firefighters who've been battling a giant wildfire in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Heavy rains moved into the area and helped douse most of those flames.

SAMBOLIN: That was much better.

BERMAN: Sadly, the destruction was already done. More than 60 buildings damaged and destroyed and 260 acres of the mountain resort community did burn.

SAMBOLIN: Wow. Even after the trial, even after two teenage boys were found guilty, police say the victim in the Steubenville rape case is still receiving threats. And her mother is now speaking out. The sheriff in Jefferson County, Ohio, says two teenage girls are now in custody for threatening the rape victim with tweets that allegedly threatened to beat or kill her.

In an audio statement, her mother called on people to help those in need and stand up for what is right.

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE) to the Middle East tonight, the first overseas trip of his second term. His initial stop is Israel. This is the first time that President Obama has visited that country as president. Among the discussions with Israeli leaders, how to contain Iran's growing nuclear program. The president will also visit the West Bank and Jordan.

SAMBOLIN: A former army officer arrested and facing 20 years in prison. The justice department says Benjamin Bishop (ph) shared classified nuclear defense information with a young Chinese woman living in Hawaii on a visa. Prosecutors say she does not have security clearance and isn't allowed to see those documents. Bishop had been working for a defense contractor as a civilian employee.

BERMAN: I have sad news to report right now. The Miami Heat have won 23 games in a row.

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBOLIN: Whooo!

BERMAN: The second longest winning streak in NBA history. They kept their streak alive with a 105-103 victory over the Celtics. The Celtics did not have Kevin Garnett. This was not a fair fight. Still, 23 wins is impressive. Lebron James and company have a long way to go if they want to break the all-time record that is held by the 1971-1972 Lakers. They won 33 straight games.

SAMBOLIN: Really feeling for you.

BERMAN: Soledad O'Brien here who apparently feels a kinship to the Miami Heat for some reason.

(LAUGHTER)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can say I called this many, many moons ago.

BERMAN: You're the only one -- O'BRIEN: Oh, wait a minute, I think I told you that.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: When Lebron James went to the Heat, Soledad was the only person who said that the Heat would be good. She's now joining us with a look ahead.

O'BRIEN: Gloating. I'm just here to gloat.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: We're going to talk about Pope Francis as he begins his ministry with his inaugural mass. We're live in Rome this morning with his message to the faithful who came out in great numbers to hear what he had to say.

And a plot for murder. Some new details this morning about a former student's plan to attack the University of Central Florida. Homemade bombs, hundreds of rounds of ammunition. We've got developing details on that story for you this morning, as well.

And then, the second part of my interview with Facebook executive, Sheryl Sandberg. We talked about the obstacles women face to get ahead, including how about likability thing?

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: That's all ahead this morning, starting right at the top of the hour.

SAMBOLIN: Can't wait to hear that.

O'BRIEN: And something happened with the Heat. What happened --

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBOLIN: They won.

O'BRIEN: Oh, right, right.

SAMBOLIN: But more importantly (ph), Boston lost.

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBOLIN: I know. Poor Berman.

O'BRIEN: Oh, it's OK.

BERMAN: Forty-eight minutes after the hour right now. And still ahead on the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we will hear from Ambassador Paul Bremer. He was in charge of Iraq for more than a year. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. This is part of our special live coverage of the inaugural mass of Pope Francis. What you're looking at right now is the pope greeting leaders from some 132 countries, representatives from around the world who came to be part of this celebration. He is shaking hands with each and every one.

SAMBOLIN: So, the mass ended just a short time ago and the pope went and changed his vestments and came out to greet the delegates. So, it's curious. We have Raymond Arroyo here. I was curious about the vestments and the pallium, in particular, and when the pope actually wears that.

ARROYO: The pallium, which was that collar with the red cross as we saw earlier. That represents the lost, weak, and sick lamb. Remember, Christ puts the lamb, the lost lamb on his shoulders and carries it. That's what that represents with the pope wearing that woven lamb's wool around -- around his neck. You'll see that at all the liturgical functions.

You know what amazes me here. You'll notice the man in the red -- behind the pope. That is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. He is the secretary of state, a controversial figure these days, before the conclave. There was much talk that reform was needed, and my guess is Cardinal Bertone, who is already too old for the position.

After 75, they submit their resignations, he will be replaced shortly. Many of the cardinals after the conclave told me they expect someone who will get things in order quickly, because the curia has been doing its own thing. And the curia is the roman government, the Vatican government that serves the pope, and really interacts with all of these world leaders you see coming forward.

But what this underscores to me is the importance of the papacy. Even now, 2,000 years later, you have the world and its dignitaries coming to certainly embrace and congratulate the pope on his ascension, but also to keep in contact. They're a great listening post, a great source of information off the grid, if you will, to so many of these governments.

You remember John Paul II, facing the fall of communism and his country using American intelligence and vice versa. So, the transference of information, intelligence, understanding, on the ground data, the church really does par excellence.

BERMAN: And in his homily today, his first chance to speak at length officially to all the people of the world, not just the people in that church, he talked about his role and the role of all of us as protectors.

ARROYO: Yes. They're protectors. And in some ways, he talked about protecting creation. You could extend that to say, you know, the church and all of us have an obligation to protect the world. And he talked about being Herods (ph) in -- new Herods (ph) unleashing death and wrath upon society when we, in our personal lives, don't, you know, don't live up to these moral standards that we should be embodying.

And I think he in the coming days is going to paint, I think, a very clear picture of what it means not only to be a Christian but to be human. And he's teaching people in his great humanity, in his warmth, and with his great sense of humor, I think, how to do that.

SAMBOLIN: You know, as you see all of these key people standing next to the pope, are those decisions that he makes to replace certain people? Because, you know, that sends a very strong message.

ARROYO: You bet. There was some trepidation as to when he might reappoint all the curial officers. He did so on Saturday, but with this proviso. He can replace them at will and he will be looking to replace several key positions.

BERMAN: Provisionally extended them.

ARROYO: That's right. It was a little provisional. And that was intent. The curia has gone so off the rails in some ways, particularly, in the gaps we saw under Benedict's reign. Whether it was speeches released or bishops to cardinals (ph), he doesn't want that happening and Francis is the reformer in his DNA, which we'll talk later about.

BERMAN: We're keeping our eye on the ceremony.

SAMBOLIN: Look at this little young man. What an opportunity to stand before the pope.

BERMAN: A lucky man. You can see -- continue to watch our coverage of this inauguration of Pope Francis. You can do it on CNN.com/Live. We'll be showing that all morning. We'll have continuing coverage right here as well.

EARLY START continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: What a morning it has been.

SAMBOLIN: It has --

BERMAN: Thank you so much for joining us for this special coverage of the pope's inauguration. That is all for EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

SAMBOLIN: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. "Starting Point" with Soledad O'Brien starts right now.

O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody. Our "Starting Point" this morning, a dramatic moment. Pope Francis shows he truly will be a man of the people, entering in an uncovered pope mobile and going into the crowd to kiss babies and the sick. His message to the world straight ahead this morning.

Plus, the winter that won't go away. The northeast blasted with snow and sleet and high winds.

BERMAN: Developing right now, an explosion at an army depot during a training exercise, and there are injuries. We'll have the latest.

Plus, new information on that planned attack at a college campus. Details on the backpacks full of bombs found in a dorm room.

ROMANS: And a global sell-off in markets and a vote today to bailout yet another European country. Is this the reason in this country investors were looking to sell?

O'BRIEN: It's Tuesday, March 19th, and "Starting Point" begins right now.

Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Our "Starting Point" this morning, thousands of worshippers in St. Peter's Square, and millions around the world praying for and with Pope Francis during his historic inaugural mass that was quite a scene this morning in Vatican City as the pope entered without the traditional bulletproof glass roof of the Popemobile.