Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Pope Summons U.S. Cardinals to Rome

Aired April 16, 2002 - 06:35   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to scandal in the Catholic Church. For the first time ever, the pope is summoning American cardinals to the Vatican. Our Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us now by telephone with the latest from Rome -- good morning.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning to you, Carol. Well, you know, cardinals usually are summoned to Rome to join a conclave, to participate in a conclave, which is the election of a new pope, or when the new cardinals are named. But this time, the pope has summoned all U.S. cardinals, or eight U.S. cardinals to come to Rome.

This summon is certainly an extraordinary event, and clearly suggests that the Vatican is now finally becoming more and more aware of the magnitude of the scandal that has rocked the United States Catholic Church involving sex abuse, priests abusing children. And it also signals that the issue is being addressed at the highest level here at the Vatican, including the pope himself.

We are still waiting for an official statement coming from the Vatican. Vatican officials here won't say much. As a matter of fact, some of them were puzzled by the fact that the news of this meeting had been released from the United States.

We do know, however, from a Vatican official, who was talking to us on condition of anonymity, that the meeting will take place as early as next week, possibly beginning on Tuesday. We do understand that eight American cardinals who head the Archdiocese of the United States will attend, including the three American cardinals, who are permanently based here in Rome.

Attending this meeting will also be the two top officers of the U.S. Bishops' Conference. Among those cardinals summoned from the United States, of course, are Cardinal Egan of New York and Cardinal Law of Boston, the latter under increased pressure in the United States to resign over his alleged mishandling of a sex abuse case -- a past sex abuse case.

But this meeting may also come as a surprise to many Vatican watchers. The head of the U.S. Bishops' Conference in Rome last week was here heading a delegation for a pre-scheduled meeting with Vatican officials, including the pope, told reporters on Saturday that the pope had expressed his support and solidarity to the U.S. clergymen. However, dealing with the sex abuse scandal -- however, the bishop suggested that for the time being, the pope wanted to leave the scandal in the hands of U.S. bishops, and clearly this summons may come as a surprise to some of the people who were there at that news conference last week. U.S. bishops are scheduled to gather in Dallas later in June for a national meeting. This meeting, we understand, that a set of guidelines will be issued, aimed at directly dealing with issue of sex abuse scandals, and therefore it is possible that this meeting here at the Vatican is a way for the bishops of the United States and the Vatican officials here altogether to sit down at the same table and perhaps discuss what those guidelines should be -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So in other words, Alessio, maybe the Vatican will give the United States cardinals some guidance on a national policy in dealing with accusations of sexual abuse.

VINCI: That is correct. I think that, as you know, the bishops in the United States are all equal, and there is no sort of direct way for one bishop to give orders to other bishops. And therefore, one of the possibilities perhaps at this meeting here in Rome, a set of national nationwide guidelines will be issued to the U.S. bishops in the United States, mandatory guidelines as to how to deal directly with the sex abuse scandals.

One of those issues, for example, is how to handle early cases of alleged sex abuse accusations and perhaps make it easier for some of the bishops to defrock some of the priests or even how to handle the news with local authorities. Not all of the United States -- not all of the states in the U.S. have the same laws on how the church should handle sex abuse allegations, and therefore perhaps the Vatican here is trying to help out...

COSTELLO: Right.

VINCI: ... the bishops to come up with a guideline that will be...

COSTELLO: I want to ask you one more question, before we have to cut away from you, Alessio. Because there was so much public pressure on the pope, and maybe he called this meeting because of that, is there any chance that he will ask Cardinals Egan and Law to step down?

VINCI: We have no indication that during this meeting, the pope will ask Cardinal Egan or Cardinal Law to resign. As a matter of fact, every time we ask the same question to Vatican officials here, even recently, they have suggested that the pope was behind Cardinal Law, behind all the U.S. clergymen, who are dealing with sensitive issues. And therefore, we have no indication, at least for now, that the pope is actually -- has any intention to ask the cardinals to resign, or any of the cardinals who will be attending here to resign.

COSTELLO: Got you. Well, we'll check in next week to see what happens. Thank you -- Alessio Vinci reporting live for us by phone from Rome this morning.

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