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American Morning

The Big Question: Who Will End Up Paying for Pedophile Priests?

Aired March 14, 2002 - 07:20   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question this hour, who will end up paying for pedophile priests? Church leaders say insurance policies will not cover the costs of settling sexual abuse suits in Boston. And just this week the Boston archdiocese agreed to pay as much as $30 million to the victims of defrocked and the convicted priest John Geoghan.

Now the church has been criticized for moving Geoghan from parish to parish despite their knowing about the sex abuse allegations against him. Now parishioners are being asked to withhold money from Cardinal Bernard Law's current fundraising campaign to protest his handling of the church sex scandal.

Mary Jo Bane, a parishioner and professor at Harvard University, is leading that effort. She joins us now from Boston.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us, professor.

MARY JO BANE, PARISHIONER: Good morning. Glad to be here.

ZAHN: All right, the cardinal has told you all not to worry, that insurance is covering the costs of the lawsuits. Now it appears that that will not happen and you have said that that is ludicrous, what is this, pedophile insurance? Is that what you want all Catholics to believe in Boston, if they give any money to the Boston archdiocese?

BANE: One of the most disturbing aspects of this whole scandal has been the secrecy in which decisions were made and the lack of information to parishioners and to people involved. What I am most concerned about is that the archdiocese be honest with its parishioners and with its contributors about where the money for this, for the settlements will come from, what will happen to the money that we give to the archdiocese, are our churches and schools at risk because of the settlements?

I am most interested in full disclosure of this information, both for its financial implications, and because it's been such a huge part of this whole scandal.

ZAHN: But professor, in absence of that full disclosure, do you want people not to give any money at all to their parishes now? BANE: I am not saying that people shouldn't give money to their parishes. Indeed, I hope that people will continue to be very generous with their parishes, as I am trying to be. What I am asking is that people consider very seriously withholding their contributions to the archdiocese, to the annual appeal by the cardinal and to the capital campaign that the archdiocese is currently engaged in.

It seems to me that by withholding those contributions, not to our parishes, not to other charities, simply to the archdiocese, that we can send a message that we believe that what the hierarchy has done is wrong and that it needs to be honest with its parishioners about what it's going to do in the future.

ZAHN: You've been talking about this for a week now and I'm wondering if you've gotten any reaction at all from the Boston archdiocese.

BANE: Yesterday the Boston, the spokesperson for the archdiocese reported that about 50 people had taken back their pledges, amounting to about a quarter of a million dollars. That's obviously a small percentage. I think the more telling time will come as people decide whether to give now. There's only anecdotal information about what people are doing. Clearly, people are thinking about it very seriously.

I must say that at the convocation which was held last Saturday where the cardinal met with about 3,000 lay leaders and clergy staff from the archdiocese, there was an enormous amount of anger and disappointment and sense of betrayal. People clearly want to make their voices known. And I wouldn't be surprised if many of them wouldn't do it by withholding their contributions.

ZAHN: What else would restore your faith in the institution?

BANE: I think that what the, the faith that needs to be restored is faith in the hierarchy. I don't believe that people have lost faith in their faith in the church or in their parishes or, indeed, in their parish priests. But what the hierarchy needs to do to restore trust, I believe the cardinal actually needs to step aside. I do not believe that he can be the one to solve the problem that he was so implicated in creating.

I think that he needs to do that as a gesture of genuine repentance and genuine healing for the archdiocese. Then I think the archdiocese needs to move much more quickly than it has been towards sharing information, towards inviting participation from parishioners and from clergy, from opening up the church in ways that will ensure that scandals like this don't happen again.

ZAHN: All right, Mary Jo Bane, again, thank you for joining us on AMERICAN MORNING. We appreciate your time and we are going to be checking back with you, if we could, on where this campaign is going and to see if you, in fact, ever get full disclosure from the Boston archdiocese.

BANE: Thank you. ZAHN: Take care.

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