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Vatican, U.S. Bishops Working Out Details
Aired October 18, 2002 - 13:19 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Vatican and U.S. bishops plan to form a joint commission to create a policy on the sexual abuse of children by priests. That was announced after the Vatican rejected a plan by the American bishops. That plan was adopted in June in response to a nationwide scandal, but the Vatican called it vague and imprecise, a potential source of confusion and ambiguity.
Now, in the United States, victim groups are expressing outrage at the Vatican response. The Vatican rejected the U.S. bishops' new policy because parts of it clashed with universal church law.
Our Vatican analyst, John Allen, joins us now from New York -- good afternoon, John.
JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Hi Carol, glad to be here.
LIN: John, can you give us a layperson's explanation of exactly why the Vatican rejected the American bishops' recommendations?
ALLEN: Yes. I think, basically, you know, there are two values at stake here. One is the promise of swift justice to victims, that is that priests who have abused children or young people are going to be removed and they are going to be removed for good.
The other is trying to protect the due process rights of accused priests, because as we know, through sad experience, not every accusation turns out to be true.
What the Vatican was trying to do here -- remains to be seen whether people buy it, but I think what they were trying to do was restore the balance between, on the one hand, swift and sure justice, on the other, making sure of that right to defense.
So, let me give you a tick-off very quickly, three problems the Vatican had with what happened, what the bishops did in Dallas.
First is the definition of sexual abuse. They think it's far too broad. The language says physical and nonphysical interactions, which could include, theoretically, things like off-color jokes or showing kids R-rated movies.
Second, the whole series of due process guarantees. The canon law, that is the universal law of the church, provides for accused priests that Dallas doesn't. One example is the statute of limitations. In canon law, it says that you cannot be charged with an offense that occurred more than 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday. Dallas has no statute of limitations at all. And third is the role of lay review boards. Dallas says that every diocese should create a board of laity that is going to help decide what happens to priests who are accused of an offense. Canon law says that is exclusively the bishop's job.
So, on those points at least, the Vatican has drawn a clear line in the sand, and said we are not going to budge.
LIN: But doesn't it -- certainly it creates the appearance that the Vatican is simply resisting reform?
ALLEN: Yes, it may create that appearance. I mean -- but what needs to happen here, of course, and Bishop Gregory said this morning, that they want -- there's going to be a mixed commission of representatives from the Vatican and the U.S. bishops that are going to try to hammer out these problems and have results by the time the U.S. bishops meet in November in Washington, November 11 through the 14th.
It's important to say, these concerns I just listed are not just Vatican concerns. Many American priests are deeply demoralized these days, and part of the reason is because they're afraid that all anyone has to do right now is point a finger at them and they are going to be believed.
And there are also lots of canon lawyers, that is people who are professional church lawyers, who think that Dallas has sort of gone too far away from the procedural safeguards in canon law.
So I think that the jury is still out in a sense, as to whether or not the bishops and the Vatican are going to be able to come up with a program that satisfies people's concerns. I think one bad foot they got off on this morning is this mixed commission that they have created is, of course, composed of clerics from the Vatican and clerics from the U.S. What that leaves out of the equation, of course, are the laity, and especially the victims, and that is neither good public relations nor is it a good way to solve the problem.
LIN: All right. But they're still working out these details, so it hasn't been resolved yet.
ALLEN: Yes. That's right. This is still a moving picture whose final scene we have not yet written.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much, John Allen, our Vatican analyst.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 18, 2002 - 13:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Vatican and U.S. bishops plan to form a joint commission to create a policy on the sexual abuse of children by priests. That was announced after the Vatican rejected a plan by the American bishops. That plan was adopted in June in response to a nationwide scandal, but the Vatican called it vague and imprecise, a potential source of confusion and ambiguity.
Now, in the United States, victim groups are expressing outrage at the Vatican response. The Vatican rejected the U.S. bishops' new policy because parts of it clashed with universal church law.
Our Vatican analyst, John Allen, joins us now from New York -- good afternoon, John.
JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Hi Carol, glad to be here.
LIN: John, can you give us a layperson's explanation of exactly why the Vatican rejected the American bishops' recommendations?
ALLEN: Yes. I think, basically, you know, there are two values at stake here. One is the promise of swift justice to victims, that is that priests who have abused children or young people are going to be removed and they are going to be removed for good.
The other is trying to protect the due process rights of accused priests, because as we know, through sad experience, not every accusation turns out to be true.
What the Vatican was trying to do here -- remains to be seen whether people buy it, but I think what they were trying to do was restore the balance between, on the one hand, swift and sure justice, on the other, making sure of that right to defense.
So, let me give you a tick-off very quickly, three problems the Vatican had with what happened, what the bishops did in Dallas.
First is the definition of sexual abuse. They think it's far too broad. The language says physical and nonphysical interactions, which could include, theoretically, things like off-color jokes or showing kids R-rated movies.
Second, the whole series of due process guarantees. The canon law, that is the universal law of the church, provides for accused priests that Dallas doesn't. One example is the statute of limitations. In canon law, it says that you cannot be charged with an offense that occurred more than 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday. Dallas has no statute of limitations at all. And third is the role of lay review boards. Dallas says that every diocese should create a board of laity that is going to help decide what happens to priests who are accused of an offense. Canon law says that is exclusively the bishop's job.
So, on those points at least, the Vatican has drawn a clear line in the sand, and said we are not going to budge.
LIN: But doesn't it -- certainly it creates the appearance that the Vatican is simply resisting reform?
ALLEN: Yes, it may create that appearance. I mean -- but what needs to happen here, of course, and Bishop Gregory said this morning, that they want -- there's going to be a mixed commission of representatives from the Vatican and the U.S. bishops that are going to try to hammer out these problems and have results by the time the U.S. bishops meet in November in Washington, November 11 through the 14th.
It's important to say, these concerns I just listed are not just Vatican concerns. Many American priests are deeply demoralized these days, and part of the reason is because they're afraid that all anyone has to do right now is point a finger at them and they are going to be believed.
And there are also lots of canon lawyers, that is people who are professional church lawyers, who think that Dallas has sort of gone too far away from the procedural safeguards in canon law.
So I think that the jury is still out in a sense, as to whether or not the bishops and the Vatican are going to be able to come up with a program that satisfies people's concerns. I think one bad foot they got off on this morning is this mixed commission that they have created is, of course, composed of clerics from the Vatican and clerics from the U.S. What that leaves out of the equation, of course, are the laity, and especially the victims, and that is neither good public relations nor is it a good way to solve the problem.
LIN: All right. But they're still working out these details, so it hasn't been resolved yet.
ALLEN: Yes. That's right. This is still a moving picture whose final scene we have not yet written.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much, John Allen, our Vatican analyst.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
