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CNN Live At Daybreak

Look at What We Can Expect From Pope John Paul This Week

Aired April 24, 2002 - 05:06   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: There is a precedent for this Vatican summit with American cardinals and that previous session gives us an idea what we can expect from Pope John Paul this week.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, it's important to remember the roman Catholic Church is by no means a democracy. So while the pope has called in a group of cardinals, in this case the American cardinals, 13 of them, to discuss an important issue, it's not as if there's a vote that is taken at the end. There are votes taken on a conclave, which is a decision on who would succeed a pope that had left the papacy, usually by his death.

But in this case the extraordinary consistory (ph) is discussing an important issue at hand and in the past this pope has held consistories to discuss several important issues -- finances of the Vatican, the Vatican bank scandal, threats to Catholicism, issues like abortion, canon law revisions, the constitution of the church and changing the laws and bylaws, millennium preparations as well as canonizations.

Now, the last time that the American cardinals were called in was in 1989 and there were some issues discussed there that were uniquely nettlesome to the American church, the issue of divorce and birth control and also the issues of abortion, big issues for the American Catholic Church, not necessarily important issues for the church the world over.

And in this case, what's important to learn here is that although the pope is consultative, he doesn't necessarily change his mind readily. The issues of divorce and birth control remain issues which the church is fairly unyielding on.

Now, having said all that, this is a very worldy pope who is known, number one, not to avoid controversy. Number two, to try to reach out and talk to members of other religions, for example, to try and attain a greater understanding. He's the first non-Italian pope in 456 years. He's polish, of course. He's traveled 730,000 miles. That's like going around the earth 28 times. And he speaks eight languages.

He has met with world leaders. He has met with members of other churches. He has tried to make tremendous inroads across the face. But having said all of that, he is also an extremely conservative pope and the cardinals that are there seeing him in this case are 12 out of 13 of them were appointed by this pope. So they're very like-minded and they're very conservative.

So the big issues on many Catholics' minds in the United States, the issues of celibacy in the priesthood and allowing women to become priests, are issues which are very unlikely to be addressed by this particular group. This is a conservative group that is determined to see the church maintain its tradition. The Roman Catholic Church is obviously a very tradition bound institution. The pope is conservative. The cardinals are conservative. And once again, remember, it's not a democracy -- Carol.

COSTELLO: No, it's not.

Thank you, Miles.

You can follow the Vatican summit and read the text of the pope's remarks on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN. And watch for a complete wrap-up of the day's events from the Vatican on "Crisis In The Priesthood" live from Rome with Connie Chung. That's tonight on CNN at 8:00 Eastern time.

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