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Sex Abuse Still Divisive Issue For Church

Aired June 18, 2003 - 15:14   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The head of the Catholic Church in Phoenix, Arizona, Bishop Thomas O'Brien, has resigned, just one day after being charged with a felony. He's accused of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Earlier this month, O'Brien narrowly escaped prosecution over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.
Well, sex abuse by priests remains a divisive issue in the Catholic Church in the United States and it is certain to be an issue as bishops gather tomorrow in St. Louis for their semiannual meeting. Under a charter approved last year by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, diocese officials will report allegations of sexual abuse of a minor to public authorities.

Past, present or future sexual abuse of a minor will lead to removal from the ministry. And no priest or deacons who sexually abuse a minor may be transferred to another diocese.

With me now to talk more about the O'Brien case and about the sexual abuse issues still dividing the Catholic Church are Barbara Blaine -- she's the founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She's in St. Louis. And also joining us from Detroit, Joe Maher. He's the founder of a priest support group.

Barbara Blaine, to you first. As the bishops get ready for this important meeting tomorrow, are you satisfied now that they've taken all the appropriate steps to deal with the abuse issue?

BARBARA BLAINE, SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS: Well, clearly they haven't.

We've been hearing all week about how bishop after bishop have refused to cooperate with the independent review boards that's conducting a review of how the bishops are dealing on this issue. We know that bishops have refused to turn over documents to prosecutors and grand juries. And many are still withholding the names of perpetrators and holding victims and their family members to confidentiality orders. So we think that the bishops have a long way to go.

WOODRUFF: Well, Mr. Maher, what about that? I mean, let's just take it one by one. That they are -- the fact that they are not cooperating fully with this review board.

JOE MAHER, PRES., PRIEST SUPPORT GROUP: Well, for one thing, the bishops are not -- they don't have to necessarily cooperate with the review board.

I think each bishop, in his own diocese, is responsible for whatever cases come to him because the National Catholic Conference of Bishops or U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops is simply a conglomeration of bishops that get together, and then they look at issues and how they -- together as a unit or group -- can do things to help the Catholic Church promote the teachings of the Church.

(CROSSTALK)

WOODRUFF: What about that?

BLAINE: The problem is is that the bishops themselves established this national review board to hold themselves accountable to this document that they issued last year, when they were asked last year, "How are you going to be held accountable?" And they were criticized for having no mechanisms to hold anyone accountable. Their response was, "We've established an independent, lay review board."

And now what's is that they have begun meddling in the affairs of the review board and by forcing Governor Keating out, they certainly have begged -- it certainly begs the question as to whether or not that review board is truly going to be allowed to act independently.

WOODRUFF: What assurance do we have about that, Mr. Maher?

MAHER: We don't, and Barbara is absolutely right. There is no assurance and they're not subject to that national review board, number one.

The other thing is -- you know, you talked about privacy. There are victims that, of course, as Barbara knows -- and she gets calls and so do I -- and there are victims that don't want any kind of press, that don't want anything put out in the public and they want to keep things confidential and the bishops are trying to respect that, too.

BLAINE: Well, the thing is is that prosecutors all over the United States respect confidentiality of sex crime victims and reporters and media people do the same.

I think that what we're -- we're not asking that the victims' names be disclosed. What we need to do is have the bishops release the information that they have. We think they should come clean and release the names of all the perpetrators. And by and large, they're refusing to do that.

WOODRUFF: Why wouldn't they do that, Mr. Maher?

MAHER: Well, for one thing, we have to remember that these are accusations. These are allegations, OK? And they're not proven whether there's truth and they're not proven to be credible yet. And even the term credible now has been so convoluted that it's hard to find what credible is.

So, when -- for someone to make an accusation, there has to be some kind of investigation for them to prove whether this is actually truthful or not. Just to blanket give out information the minute that there is an accusation made, that's not -- that's unjust and that doesn't follow our own Constitution to due process.

WOODRUFF: All right.

BLAINE: That's not what the bishops' policy called for. The bishops' policy made it clear that they would release information and that they would act with an atmosphere of openness and transparency and that's not what they've done.

And they themselves...

WOODRUFF: We're going to have to...

BLAINE: Sorry.

WOODRUFF: I'm sorry. I hate to keep interrupting you. We are going to have to leave it there. Barbara Blaine, Joe Maher, we thank you so much...

BLAINE: Thank you.

MAHER: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: ...for talking to us this afternoon. Thank you very much.

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 June 18, 2003 - 15:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The head of the Catholic Church in Phoenix, Arizona, Bishop Thomas O'Brien, has resigned, just one day after being charged with a felony. He's accused of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Earlier this month, O'Brien narrowly escaped prosecution over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.
Well, sex abuse by priests remains a divisive issue in the Catholic Church in the United States and it is certain to be an issue as bishops gather tomorrow in St. Louis for their semiannual meeting. Under a charter approved last year by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, diocese officials will report allegations of sexual abuse of a minor to public authorities.

Past, present or future sexual abuse of a minor will lead to removal from the ministry. And no priest or deacons who sexually abuse a minor may be transferred to another diocese.

With me now to talk more about the O'Brien case and about the sexual abuse issues still dividing the Catholic Church are Barbara Blaine -- she's the founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She's in St. Louis. And also joining us from Detroit, Joe Maher. He's the founder of a priest support group.

Barbara Blaine, to you first. As the bishops get ready for this important meeting tomorrow, are you satisfied now that they've taken all the appropriate steps to deal with the abuse issue?

BARBARA BLAINE, SURVIVORS NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS: Well, clearly they haven't.

We've been hearing all week about how bishop after bishop have refused to cooperate with the independent review boards that's conducting a review of how the bishops are dealing on this issue. We know that bishops have refused to turn over documents to prosecutors and grand juries. And many are still withholding the names of perpetrators and holding victims and their family members to confidentiality orders. So we think that the bishops have a long way to go.

WOODRUFF: Well, Mr. Maher, what about that? I mean, let's just take it one by one. That they are -- the fact that they are not cooperating fully with this review board.

JOE MAHER, PRES., PRIEST SUPPORT GROUP: Well, for one thing, the bishops are not -- they don't have to necessarily cooperate with the review board.

I think each bishop, in his own diocese, is responsible for whatever cases come to him because the National Catholic Conference of Bishops or U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops is simply a conglomeration of bishops that get together, and then they look at issues and how they -- together as a unit or group -- can do things to help the Catholic Church promote the teachings of the Church.

(CROSSTALK)

WOODRUFF: What about that?

BLAINE: The problem is is that the bishops themselves established this national review board to hold themselves accountable to this document that they issued last year, when they were asked last year, "How are you going to be held accountable?" And they were criticized for having no mechanisms to hold anyone accountable. Their response was, "We've established an independent, lay review board."

And now what's is that they have begun meddling in the affairs of the review board and by forcing Governor Keating out, they certainly have begged -- it certainly begs the question as to whether or not that review board is truly going to be allowed to act independently.

WOODRUFF: What assurance do we have about that, Mr. Maher?

MAHER: We don't, and Barbara is absolutely right. There is no assurance and they're not subject to that national review board, number one.

The other thing is -- you know, you talked about privacy. There are victims that, of course, as Barbara knows -- and she gets calls and so do I -- and there are victims that don't want any kind of press, that don't want anything put out in the public and they want to keep things confidential and the bishops are trying to respect that, too.

BLAINE: Well, the thing is is that prosecutors all over the United States respect confidentiality of sex crime victims and reporters and media people do the same.

I think that what we're -- we're not asking that the victims' names be disclosed. What we need to do is have the bishops release the information that they have. We think they should come clean and release the names of all the perpetrators. And by and large, they're refusing to do that.

WOODRUFF: Why wouldn't they do that, Mr. Maher?

MAHER: Well, for one thing, we have to remember that these are accusations. These are allegations, OK? And they're not proven whether there's truth and they're not proven to be credible yet. And even the term credible now has been so convoluted that it's hard to find what credible is.

So, when -- for someone to make an accusation, there has to be some kind of investigation for them to prove whether this is actually truthful or not. Just to blanket give out information the minute that there is an accusation made, that's not -- that's unjust and that doesn't follow our own Constitution to due process.

WOODRUFF: All right.

BLAINE: That's not what the bishops' policy called for. The bishops' policy made it clear that they would release information and that they would act with an atmosphere of openness and transparency and that's not what they've done.

And they themselves...

WOODRUFF: We're going to have to...

BLAINE: Sorry.

WOODRUFF: I'm sorry. I hate to keep interrupting you. We are going to have to leave it there. Barbara Blaine, Joe Maher, we thank you so much...

BLAINE: Thank you.

MAHER: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: ...for talking to us this afternoon. Thank you very much.

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