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American Morning

Pope Takes Active Role in Sex Abuse Scandal

Aired April 16, 2002 - 07:42   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: For the first time since the priest sex abuse scandal began surfacing in Boston back in January, the pope is taking an active role now in the case. Pope John Paul II has summoned all of the American cardinals to an extraordinary meeting next week. And at least eight cardinals, who are in charge of American archdiocese, are expected to attend this very unusual summit.

Among them: Boston's embattled Cardinal Law, who was under pressure to resign over his handling of sex abuse cases.

CNN's Jason Carroll reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The summons from his eminence is as significant as it is historic.

FATHER BOB CARR, HOLY CROSS CATHEDRAL: This is something you'll be talking about -- well, in some way or another 1,000 years from now. This is not 50 years, oh, remember when -- this is 1,000 years from now.

CARROLL (on camera): That significant.

CARR: That significant.

CARROLL (voice-over): Father Bob Carr is a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, a city where names like Geoghan, Shanley and Paquin have become synonymous with disgraced clergy, a city whose own cardinal, Bernard Law, missed mass on Sunday for the first time in years, as he struggles with the crisis some here say he can't handle, that he helped create, and that should end in his resignation.

CARR: And I suppose the pope is going to say what's going on here, and where are we not living the gospel and where does this have to change?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American church has had an opportunity to try to get this mess under control.

CARROLL: Bob Bartlett (ph) says when he was a boy, Father Ronald Paquin sexually abused him over a period of five years. He settled his case, but that legal battle left him skeptical about how much change even the pope can effect. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's heading in the right direction, but I'm going to have to see a lot before I'll be satisfied.

CARROLL: Bob Sherman, an attorney whose firm is currently handling 120 sexual abuse claims against priests, was more blunt.

BOB SHERMAN, ATTORNEY FOR VICTIMS: There needs to be a plan put in place. We can't be talking simply about meetings and hand wringing and we'll pray for the victims. There needs to be action.

CARROLL: Sherman says the pontiff should talk to the victims, but Father Carr says first, change has to come from within.

CARR: Ultimately, I think what the pope may call them to is his own personal philosophy, which is personalism, is to look -- is to come to that point where we'll all called to come to. That he would look into the eyes of every human being and say, Jesus died for that person. I will treat them respectively.

CARROLL: We may never know what the pope says to the cardinals in Rome, but Boston is waiting for what one will do when he comes back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Up until now, the Vatican has had a hands-off approach to the church crisis in the United States. One theologian from Notre Dame University says the reason why the pope finally got involved is because the church crisis finally started to affect church finances, as well as morale.

As for Cardinal Law, he continues to remain in seclusion. He is expected to leave for Rome sometime later this week -- Paula.

ZAHN: And now that he is making this trip, is there heightened speculation that he will never resign? Because I guess his argument has been, you know, basically I'll resign when the pope tells me I've got to go.

CARROLL: Well, you know, Paula, we've heard people on both sides of that issue. Some say that perhaps Cardinal Law will go and will not come back. But when you talk to those within the Archdiocese of Boston, they tell us that Cardinal Law will come back, but he will come back a changed man -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thank you, Jason Carroll, for that update. And calling all of the cardinals to Rome on such short notice is unprecedented. And one theologian described it as a visit to the woodshed.

Now, it may be an indication of how seriously the pope is now taking the growing scandal. And CNN's Jim Bittermann joins us from Paris with more on that -- good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It's not entirely unprecedented. The pope has called the cardinals in in the past for various kinds of meetings like this. In 1989, he did call in the American cardinals to talk about the way Americans were widely ignoring his edicts on birth control. So this kind of thing has happened in the past, but it's certainly very unusual for these eight American cardinals to go to Rome next week.

We believe the meetings will go on for about two days, perhaps next Tuesday and Wednesday. And they come on the heels of meetings last week with the American Bishops Conference, meetings at which one person said, one Vatican observer said afterwards the Vatican got a very quick learning curve on how serious the situation is in the United States.

The head of the American Bishops Conference, Wilton Gregory, said after the meetings with the pope that the pope has been caused great harm by the scandal in the United States. He said the pope is a pastor, and as a pastor, he suffers when any members of his flock suffer.

Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles, one of those who will be attending next week, said that he expects the meetings will analyze the situation in the United States and then try to come up with some proposals to make sure that the children and youth of the church are, in fact, safe.

What other topics are to be discussed, we don't really know at this point. But there could be a lot of things come up, including how to handle this public relations problem, how to handle the image of the church in the United States going on from this point -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Jim, I'd love to have you explain one thing to us this morning. This appears to be a sharp reversal on the Vatican's part. Wasn't it, after all, just on the weekend when the conference of Catholic bishops insisted that the pope was going to leave it up to the U.S. and its leadership to solve this problem?

BITTERMANN: Absolutely true. I think what the pope heard in those meetings with the Catholic bishops must have changed his mind. The fact is the pope has, up until now, had a fairly hands-off policy. He has mentioned it on a couple of occasions, over Easter for instance. He brought it up in prayers, brought the matters of sexual abuse up in prayers at the Vatican. But beyond that, he really didn't get involved.

And part of that is because the church is actually fairly decentralized, although you have the pope sitting in the chair and giving orders to his flock. A lot of decisions are taken at very much a lower level, and so it has been up until now very much traditionally to the bishops and the cardinals to make decisions with regard to the complaints and accusations that have been made against the priests.

So it really hasn't risen to the Vatican level. This is a sign for sure that it is rising to the Vatican level, and we expect those cardinals, by the way, to meet with the very top Vatican officials next week, as well as the pope -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks, Jim -- Jim Bittermann reporting from Paris for us this morning -- appreciate it.

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