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American Morning

Interview with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

Aired April 22, 2002 - 09:33   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: America's top clerics are arriving in Rome for an extraordinary meeting called by the Pope to address the sexual abuse crisis in the church. Among those who will be in attendance tomorrow when the senate opens is Washington D.C. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. His diocese has not been immune from sex abuse concerns.

When the cardinal arrived in Rome, CNN's Connie Chung sat down with him to get his view on the crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CONNIE CHUNG, CNN ANCHOR: What went wrong do you think?

CARDINAL THEODORE MCCARRICK, ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON: Well, I'm not sure that I can -- I can answer that in a word or so. I think it's a whole series of things that might have gone wrong. One of them is human nature, and human nature went wrong when we first brought sin into the world.

Also, I think part of it is that we may not have been as careful years ago as we are now about people who come into the priesthood. However, I think it's important for us to understand the context now. We're talking about less than 2 percent of your priests, so that when you say what went wrong, sure, even to have one child hurt is a -- is a disaster and a scandal.

CHUNG: You yourself have been accused.

MCCARRICK: Some of the cardinals received an anonymous letter accusing me of all kinds of things. And as soon as I got it, I do what I always do with these things because I believe in the light. I took it, I studied it, I answered it and then brought it to my (UNINTELLIGIBLE) council or the council priest. I said look, this has come in it. There's nothing into it. Here's the -- here's the story and it died, obviously, because there was nothing in it.

CHUNG: It evaporated?

MCCARRICK: It evaporated. There's no -- it was an anonymous thing someone sent. Every once in a while in life you offend somebody who doesn't like you or someone who's -- who probably maybe for good reason says this man's not a -- he's not serving the church as well as I'd like him to serve it and so people decide to do things like that.

CHUNG: Do you know any of these individuals that were named? You were accused of...

MCCARRICK: Well this is part of my family. This is -- they were -- they were saying that I was -- that these things were happening in my own family.

CHUNG: In your own family?

MCCARRICK: Yes.

CHUNG: You mean your relatives?

MCCARRICK: Yes. Yes. Yes.

CHUNG: Oh my.

MCCARRICK: It's a terrible thing even just to have to talk about.

CHUNG: Would you address the question of sexual conduct on your part?

MCCARRICK: I certainly will. I said to the "Washington Post" and on the record and I say it again now, I think none of us would have a problem. I have never had sexual relations with anybody, man women or child, in the 71 years that I've been here on this earth. So and that's for the record.

CHUNG: End of a story.

MCCARRICK: End of story.

CHUNG: Will there be a consensus that will emerge from this meeting?

MCCARRICK: We'll know that two days from now, Connie. I think that all the American cardinals want to make sure that we are in control of a terrible situation and that it will never occur again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And tonight Connie will begin a series of reports from Rome, "LIVE FROM ROME: CRISIS IN THE PRIESTHOOD." The hour-long special begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

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