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American Morning
Interview with Tom Beaudoin, Rev. Francis Cilia
Aired August 14, 2002 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Confession is one of the most private of all Roman Catholic sacraments, but in response to the church's new zero-tolerance policy against sexual misconduct, the head of the San Jose, California diocese has ordered all 52 parishes to actually install windows in confessional boxes. The idea is greater protection for parishioners. What about privacy, though?
Joining us now to talk more about that from San Jose, Father Francis Cilia, vicar general of the San Jose Diocese -- it is an honor to have you with us this morning.
FRANCIS CILIA, VICAR GENERAL, SAN JOSE DIOCESE: Thank you.
ZAHN: And from Boston this morning, Tom Beaudoin of Boston College -- welcome to you as well, Tom.
TOM BEAUDOIN, BOSTON COLLEGE: Thank you.
ZAHN: Father Cilia, what kind of impact do you think these windows in the confessionals will have on parishioners?
CILIA: I think the impact will be minimal. People are of the mind that we're going to take whole doors or whole walls out and put glass in, that they are going to be in a fishbowl. That's not what we are planning to do. We're talking about putting small panes of glass, perhaps, that there could be visibility from the outside to the inside, but the average person, barring that people are going in and actually staring at people, the average person will be able to confess in the same way as they have been doing for years and years.
ZAHN: You really don't believe it will discourage people from going to confession in the first place?
CILIA: Well, confession is not something that lots of people are going to right now anyway. I believe that the people that are going will continue to go, and I think others, perhaps, might be encouraged when they realize that light shines where there was no light before.
ZAHN: Tom, what do you think? Are you as open about this as some of Father Cilia's parishioners are?
BEAUDOIN: Well, I must say, I respect the right of Father Cilia to enforce such decisions, and I think it is important for the church to give a good impression at this time, and it is important for us to keep ourselves from occasions of sin. But right now, the sacrament of reconciliation is on the endangered species list in terms of Catholic sacraments, and this is not something I think that will continue to keep attracting Catholics to come to reconciliation. I'm a bit discouraged to hear Father Cilia say, Well, not many Catholics are going anyway, because I think that as a church, we should be about doing things that encourage people to come to the sacraments more often. My main concern, though, is that priests, of course, should be held accountable, and should be discouraged from abusing children in all places and in all instances, but I worry about the bishops over- focusing on the priests, and not taking their own responsibility for their own roles in this scandal. Now, if we are going to install a window on every confessional, then we should also put a television camera in every bishop's residence so not only do we keep priests from abusing, we keep bishops from signing papers that shuffle abusive priests around.
ZAHN: Father Cilia, your reaction to what Tom has just said?
CILIA: It is an interesting concept, but he and I both know that will never happen. We are trying in small ways to try to deal with this issue. The bishop has been in dialogue with the priests on this, and it was through the dialogue that the bishop and the priests agreed that this would not be a bad thing to do.
ZAHN: But I guess that Tom -- the point he's making, Yes, maybe now with these windows, some parishioners might feel safer in an environment if they felt in some way threatened by the priest they were confessing to, but the broader issue of having control of what goes on in the diocese, as Tom just pointed out in the residence. You say, obviously, that kind of scrutiny will never happen.
CILIA: No. I mean, I think that Tom knows it would never happen, also. Don't you, Tom?
BEAUDOIN: Well, the point I'm trying to make is somewhat rhetorical, that most of the responses to the scandal in the Catholic Church have tended to focus entirely on the behavior of priests. Now while that is appropriate, and while no priest is above culpability for his, or possibly some day, her actions, we also need to hold the bishops accountable for their work and their culpability in this scandal. And all we're seeing now is a focus on priests' behavior and none on bishops' behavior. I am not blaming Father Cilia for that. I am simply saying isn't it interesting that we never thought of putting a television camera in the bishop's residence to keep him from signing papers that shuffle abusive priests around?
ZAHN: Well, Father Cilia, what about that in a broad sense, the accountability that you think bishops should have, and how you enforce that?
CILIA: It's almost impossible to enforce, and that's the problem. We are aware of that. The bishops are accountable to Rome, as far as authority, but they are accountable to their people, too. The bishops must be honest with their people, and Bishop McGrath, my bishop, has been honest with the people. He's been straight forward about what is going on, and he has not shuffled people off from any place. It's a difficult topic. The bishops did not deal with their accountability in the meeting in Dallas. We all are aware of that, and there should be accountability, but how it is going to be enforced, I can't guess.
ZAHN: We would love to come back to you at a certain point in time and see how parishioners accept what some might see as the intrusion of windows in the confessional booth, but we appreciate your joining us this morning, Reverend Cilia and Tom Beaudoin.
CILIA: Thank you.
ZAHN: Glad to have both or your insights.
BEAUDOIN: Thank you, Paula.
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