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American Morning

Roman Catholic Finishes Draft of Plan For Dealing With Abusive Priests

Aired June 04, 2002 - 09:30   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have finished the draft of a plan for dealing with abusive priests. "The Boston Globe" got a copy before today's release to the public.

Jason Carroll has more on that story now with us live.

Jason, hello.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

We have a copy of that draft report as well. The headline here, not sure the victims' family members will be happy with the entire content of the report. Why? Because many of the victims said they want some sort of zero-tolerance or one-strike-and-you're-out policy. They believe the church should adopt this type of policy.

But the draft report indicates the bishops will allow an exception, namely if a cleric has only had one offense, has not been diagnosed as a pedophile, and has had a clean record since that offense. You may ask why this expectation? Well, the pope has already indicated he strongly believes in the power of conversion. He made that point when the cardinals met in Rome. Also the diocese will report any accusation of sexual abuse who is a minor to the proper authorities and cooperate in their investigation. Now that's a point that victims and their family members will definitely agree to.

Two, when the investigation of a complaint against a cleric so indicates diocesan authorities are to relieve the alleged offender promptly of his ministerial duties.

Three, as a preventative measure, regarding acts of sexual abuse committed subsequent to this date, even a single act of abuse of a minor will bring about a request for laicization. That is basically being reduced to lay status. Again, that is a point that some of the victims and their family members will agree to.

Another point they will agree to regarding acts of sexual abuse of a minor committed prior to this date, if the cleric is a pedophile or if he has committed more than one act of sexual abuse of a minor, there will be a request for the cleric laicization, even without his consent, if necessary.

Also, Bill, in the past, there's been a problem within the church of transferring priests accused of sexual abuse from parish to parish. We saw that in the case of John Geoghan, the defrocked priest up there in Boston. Also, we saw that in the case of father Paul Shanley, who is now in custody, facing counts of sexual abuse there as well. That is John Geoghan, the one that I was talking about a little bit ago.

In order to prevent things like this from happening again, the bishops are proposing that every time that a priest is transferred to another parish, that priest, his record will be reviewed thoroughly before that transfer goes through. One more final point that I want to bring up here in terms of looking through the draft report, a number of the victims have indicated they say they should be a part of the process of dealing with this church crisis.

In this report, the bishops have indicated that the victims and their family members should be made a part of dealing with the crisis, but it's not clear yet if there will be allowed to speak at the National Conference of Bishops when they meet next week. I know that a number of the victims and their family members indicated that that is an important point to them, they do want to speak. Not clear if that is going to be allowed to happen in some way, shape or form at the meeting which is scheduled again, for next week. So there's some points in here definitely that some of the victims and their family members will agree to, but when it comes to the zero-tolerance policy, that's where the church is going to run into some problems -- Bill.

HEMMER: Jason, thank you. Jason Carroll in Washington with the latest on this story,

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