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Pope Delivers Christmas Message; 2014 Religious Round Table; Biggest News Stories of 2014; Ebola outbreak; Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 going missing; Ferguson and Eric Garner protests

Aired December 25, 2014 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Looking back: from Ferguson and ISIS to Ebola, Ukraine and a missing airliner. We're taking a look back at some of the biggest stories of 2014.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the year in politics: a good one for Republicans, pot and same-sex marriage. Not so good for Democrats in the House and the Senate.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good stuff, sometimes Santa wear as badge. Some compassionate cops help make one family's Christmas wish come true this morning.

CUOMO: Your special holiday edition of NEW DAY starts right now.

(MUSIC: "O CHRISTMAS TREE")

CUOMO: Good morning and welcome to a special holiday edition of NEW DAY. It is Thursday, December 25, Christmas morning...

CAMEROTA: Yay!

CUOMO: ... 6 A.M. in the East. I'm Chris Cuomo, along with Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira, and we are joined by the Young People's Chorus of New York City. What a beautiful version of "O Christmas Tree" they just gave us.

By the way, they have a new album called "Coolside of Yuletide," an album of urban arrangements of holiday classics, and it's available on both iTunes and CD Baby.

We have a big show for you. We're going to look back at 2014. All the big news stories that we've been through this year: the disappearance of Flight 370, all the way up and until Ferguson.

CAMEROTA: Yes. So merry Christmas, you guys. So great to be with you.

And we're going to also bring you a religious round table. We're going to have a conversation about the role that faith has played in the headlines this year.

PEREIRA: And in case you'd rather not watch "A Christmas Story" eight times straight, we also are going to run down a list of the best movies that you need to catch during the holidays. CAMEROTA: But first, let's get a check of your headlines at the

news desk.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and Merry Christmas. I'm Alison Kosik.

Pope Francis today addressing the plight of Christians and other minorities suffering persecution in the Middle East at the hands of ISIS. In his annual Christmas message, the pontiff is calling for tenderness following a violence-plagued year.

Let's get right to John Allen, live on the ground in Rome -- John.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn, you're right. Pope Francis today is delivering his traditional Christmas message, known as the Urbi et Orbi message, to the city and the world. And the top note is, once again, the pope is calling for an end for -- to what he described as a brutal persecution in Iraq and Syria that he has said has gone on for far too long.

This caps what has been a message of outreach to the victims of persecution in the Middle East by the pope this Christmas time. On Tuesday he released an open letter to those Christians, calling for an end to the violence that's plaguing them.

Last night in a surprise gesture, he made a phone call to people living in a refugee camp outside the Iraqi city of Erbil before celebrating the mass of Christmas. And once again today, we hear the pontiff returning to that theme.

In addition, he's also expressing consolation and hope for victims of violence elsewhere, including the Central African Republic and Congo; also expressing his sympathy for the victims of the Ebola virus and for children who are caught up in situations of hardship.

So it's a kind of comprehensive message of consolation and hope from Pope Francis on Christmas day, Alison.

KOSIK: All right. John Allen, lime [SIC] -- live in Rome. Thanks.

Midnight mass in New York offering reassurance to a troubled city, Cardinal Timothy Dolan noting the presence of both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Dolan addressed the tensions in the city between protesters, calling for police reform and those mourning the murder of two police officers. Dolan called those killings senseless and irrational. In his homily, he urged political leaders to, quote, "invite us to dialogue, to listen instead of shouting."

Violence erupting in Berkeley, Missouri, right outside Ferguson, where a teen was shot dead by a cop Tuesday night. Demonstrators swarmed a gas station where Antonio Martin was gunned down. The demonstrators held a die-in and also blocked a major highway. Several arrests were made. Meantime, several angles of surveillance video have been released

on -- of the confrontation between Martin and police. It appears to show the teen's pointing what looks like a gun at the officer. A weapon was recovered at the scene.

Former President George H.W. Bush remains hospitalized this morning. But aides say the 90-year-old father of George W. Bush had a good day on Wednesday. The elder Bush was taken to a Houston hospital Tuesday night, suffering shortness of breath. The 41st president was hospitalized in 2012 for bronchitis and took two months to recover. But his chief of staff tells CNN, quote, "This is not two years ago." Jean Becker says, "It's a hiccup. He should come home in a few days."

The comedy "The Interview" set to hit about 300 movie theaters across the U.S. today. President Obama, who's vacationing in Hawaii for the holidays, said he's happy Sony had a change of heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm glad it's being released. Merry Christmas, everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Sell-outs are being reported at some theaters that have decided to show the movie. And if you can't see it in theaters, check it out online. It's now streaming for a price on several sites, including YouTube, Google Play and the Microsoft Xbox video game console. This obviously wasn't the plan, but it could prove to be part of the wave of the future for movie releases.

A few of the kids calling NORAD's Santa tracker hotline got an unexpected Christmas present: phone time with first lady Michelle Obama. This is the fifth year Mrs. Obama has answered the call. She spent a lot of time on the phone talking to a few kids. She told children exactly where Santa was and that he would arrive at their homes just after they went to sleep.

Those are your news headlines. Now back to a special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

CUOMO: What do you say we begin this morning by talking about the role of faith in some of the biggest headlines of the year? We have a very special group of wise people with us. Father Dave Dwyer, host of "The Busted Halo Show" on Sirius XM. We have Reverend Michel Faulkner of Harlem's New Horizon Church of New York. And Reverend Christine Lee, the vicar for All Angels Church. Also the first woman, right, ordained within the Episcopal Church. True?

REV. CHRISTINE LEE, VICAR, ALL ANGELS CHURCH: First Korean- American woman.

CUOMO: You qualify. Great to have all three of you here. Merry Christmas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to be here. Merry Christmas. CUOMO: Let's go through three big topics, OK, here. The first

is let's deal with what's happening right now.

The movements for justice that we saw coming out of the non- indictments and grand juries in Ferguson, Missouri, and of course, Eric Garner and other cases that are being filled in. Let's start with that. Do you see God, Father, in what's going on with these protests and this supposed dialogue of social justice?

FATHER DAVE DWYER, HOST, SIRIUS XM'S "THE BUSTED HALO SHOW": I absolutely see God. I also see a role for people of faith and not just people of the cloth. And that is that there's so many dimensions of the situation and a lot of people in society, I think, gravitate to focusing on the facts and the grand jury. And I myself was poring over the grand jury's transcripts, going what really happened and all that?

When, as people of faith, we realize that sometimes the presenting issue and the facts is just the surface, and we need to get at people's heart. So I believe, certainly, as ministers we are trained to listen and go beyond that and say, "I hear that you're hurting." Regardless of what the jury convicts or not, we need to be sensitive to people's emotions.

CUOMO: You know, Reverend, in Ferguson, when we were there during the early protests that turned into riots -- and there's a big distinction between those two things -- there was a lot of -- there were a lot of clergy there, but their main purpose was organizing against the violence.

It did seem there was a vacuum of leadership, not to blame them, but just a need. What is the need? How do you talk to people with such a reason for outrage and let them see something past that? It's very hard. How do you do it?

REV. MICHEL FAULKNER, PASTOR, NEW HORIZON CHURCH: It's very difficult.

First of all, historically, we affirm and believe in the right to protest. I mean, as Americans, that's a value; that's a core value.

CUOMO: Sure.

FAULKNER: And so these protests are good, as long as they're nonviolent. I support them. I pray for the protesters. I'm excited that they're passionate about what they're talking about, and they're expressing their feelings in a peaceful way. The problem comes in when we begin to cast blame and we begin to say, we want to change this. We want to change that.

And we have to understand that the only way that those things are going to change is we unify around a set of core values as Americans and come together. And there is -- therein lies the role of faith.

I believe that God would use people of faith, people of good will, particularly the clergy, to bring people together in a peaceful way to allow a meaningful dialogue to happen. Right now we're not having it. We've got people on one side, people on the other side.

CUOMO: It's hard in the moment, though. It's hard in the moment. There's -- because people feel they're not being heard.

And that takes me to another aspect of this, Reverend, is that the members of people of faith there were saying, "Hey, listen, also you have to learn to forgive in situations." And there are a lot of people, certainly African-American people, who are saying, "I'm not -- I'm tired of forgiving. I'm not going to forgive. Yes, I believe. I'm not forgiving, because this system is broken. They're coming after us; they're targeting us."

LEE: Yes.

CUOMO: How do you bridge that when there is real reasonable basis for their feelings and hostility? How do you bridge that?

LEE: Yes. I mean, I think there's a couple things. I think one is, of course, the role of forgiveness is huge. And as Christians we have this story of Jesus on the cross, while he's being executed, praying for his enemies, praying for his killers.

And I think that in protests, especially faith communities in protests, we have to give people space both, I think, for the anger and for the grief, as well as calling people to forgiveness.

There is this communal kind of richness, I think, of our traditions, where even if you look at the songs, there's room for lament. There's room for corporate confession. There's also room for celebration. And I think there's something very humanizing about being able to acknowledge all of those experiences and saying they're absolutely valid. But this is human, too. Like if you stay in the place of anger, you actually become less human.

CUOMO: There has to be a bridge between the head and the heart. And the question is how does faith do that?

Let's do it in a different topic that is certainly equally as urgent. The role of negotiating the relationship with Islam that we're going through in the United States right now with tons of prejudice. I think one moment captures it very well with Bill Maher on his show with Ben Affleck. Do you remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR: Because it's gross; it's racist.

BILL MAHER, HOST, HBO'S "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": It's not. But it's so not.

AFFLECK: It's like saying...

MAHER: It's so not.

AFFLECK: Like saying you're a shifty Jew.

MAHER: You're not listening to what we're saying.

AFFLECK: How about the more than a billion people, who aren't fanatical, who don't punch...

MAHER: Wait a second. Wait a second.

AFFLECK: Who don't do any of the things you're saying all Muslims.

(CROSSTALK)

AFFLECK: And you're painting the whole religion with that broad brush.

MAHER: You're saying that the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the Islamic religion is just a few bad apples?

AFFLECK: The people who would actually believe in an act that you murder somebody if they leave Islam is not the majority of Muslims at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. Now we see the first problem demonstrated there when it comes to faith, which is you talk at each other, not to each other. Right?

But at the same time it deals with what is this faith? And is it different from the majority Christian aspect or Judeo Christian ethic we have here?

Father, we'll start with you. Actually, I'll start in the middle this time. Just for equal distribution. So Reverend, what do you say? You're hearing it from your congregants. You're hearing people say, "Well, they're not like us. These are violent angry people that we have here. Not like us." Like Christians are held blameless when it comes to that. What do you say?

FAULKNER: Well, first of all, you have to know the Koran. You have to know -- religions are based on their core principles, their core beliefs, their holy books, their doctrine.

CUOMO: Sure.

FAULKNER: and if you really know the Koran, a lot of what's being said is not critique; it's true. And that's really scary. Now, people, Islamic theologians...

CUOMO: Different than the Old Testament?

FAULKNER: Yes.

CUOMO: An angry God in the Old Testament.

FAULKNER: He was angry, but...

CUOMO: Smiting and killing and plague.

FAULKNER: Yes, absolutely. But you put that in the context of the stories and of the narratives, right. And, you know, the holy Bible as we see it is a book written by God. The Koran is a book about God. And so it was written from the Prophet Mohammed's point of view.

And in -- there are two halves, two distinct halves in how he's writing. The first half he's reaching out and he's peaceful. He's trying to reconcile things. And in the second half he's pretty angry, you know, and he's, he's saying, "Well, we need to -- we can't reconcile. We need to take over. We need to eliminate those who are infidels or who are not believers."

CUOMO: All right. So -- but let's -- but let's juxtapose that. Look, there's very reason -- good reason to believe that much of Islam was modeled on Judaism and Christianity, OK? Both in history and just empirically.

You look at the Bible, you can flip it the same way. OK, so in the Koran he starts peaceful and then he gets angry. In the Bible he starts angry and he gets more peaceful. But at the end of the day, isn't it about interpretation? And should that faith be painted with a different brush?

DWYER: Well, I think -- one of the key things we're talking about in America is that we are people of many different religions, people of many different races and backgrounds.

And there was a time not very long ago when the church that I was live at were founded in the 19th century where Catholics were looked at as kind of askance and what is...

CUOMO: Still are in some places.

DWYER: Well, I my house they are (ph), yes. But I mean, certainly I don't know, particularly because of today's global media, that we're at that same level. I think it's a lot worse and there's a lot.

But we were certainly the victim of misunderstanding; people saying, "Well, that's not really Christianity," or "They don't really believe in the same God." And I see a lot of that happening now.

You're right, that the violence is painted just as easily on Christians and Catholics down through the ages.

CUOMO: No, but it isn't. Let's end on that. Is that it's not. Is that Islam is being looked at in a way that we haven't experienced in our lifetimes, within generations, actually, of faith being condemned for its actions. What is your message?

LEE: I mean, I would say, I'm always reminded of the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who said, "If only it was so simple to just put all the evil people over there and destroy them and separate them from us." But in reality, that line between good and evil, it divides every single human heart.

You know, and I think his last question was, "And who is willing to destroy a part of his own heart?"

So I feel like when we begin to say there's them, evil people, and us good people, I think that's when you move away from what the heart of faith really is about.

CUOMO: And to be sure, at best, you have a broken halo, to borrow from your show. I couldn't give you all the credit, Father.

DWYER: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you to all three of you for the perspective.

FAULKNER: Thank you.

CUOMO: We need it, especially right now.

FAULKNER: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Now, as we talk about the year here, 2014, certainly filled with just unforgettable news stories. No question about that. And as you know, CNN, we were there for all of them. Flight 370, Ebola, Ferguson. We're going to reflect on the year that was when our special holiday edition of NEW DAY continues.

But first, what's better than this? Let's listen to the Young People's Chorus of New York City and their rendition of "Joy to the World."

(MUSIC: "JOY TO THE WORLD")

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Welcome back to a special Christmas edition of NEW DAY.

From the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 to the protests in Ferguson and New York, it's time to take a look at the biggest news stories defining 2014 and how the rest of the world saw them.

So let's bring in managing editor of "Quartz" and CNN global affairs analyst, Bobby Ghosh.

Great to have you with us on this special edition.

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Pleasure.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's talk about the stories that were big globally and how the rest of the world analyzed them and covered them. Starting with the mystery that had us so captivated for weeks on end, and that was the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. How did the rest of the world see that? GHOSH: That is one story that is human, eternal and universal.

That -- the same suspense and mystification that we felt about it was felt around the world. People everywhere were amazed that, at this day and age, which all the technology, with the ability of governments and security institutions to tell where you and I are based on where we're using our cell phone, that an entire airliner with 240-odd people on board can just vanish into the mist. And now it's been you know, six, eight months since then and still, not a trace.

So that sort of Bermuda Triangle mystery is very universal. And people, whether they were in far Mongolia or in -- in South America felt the same astonishing -- as well as the deep human tragedy of those families not knowing what came of their dear ones.

CAMEROTA: That one was so haunting. And then, shortly thereafter, there was another Malaysian Airlines tragedy, and that was that the Flight MH-17 was shot down over Ukraine.

GHOSH: Alas, this is a sort of much more modern tragedy, much more specific. A plane shot down from the sky, probably an accident. Everything indicates that pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists using Russian-made arms fired at the plane, thinking it was a Ukrainian military aircraft.

In that case, there was no -- there was not much mystery. But quite -- but the tragedy is the same, of families losing dear ones, people traveling on vacation, their lives being just snuffed out like that because of a conflict in which they had absolutely no part.

CAMEROTA: Another place of conflict, Iraq and the rise of ISIS. Here in the United States we have devoted a lot of time and coverage to ISIS: who they are, how this happened. How about globally, the coverage of ISIS?

GHOSH: Well, closer to the center of the action in places like Iraq and in Syria, people have known about ISIS and have been paying much more attention than people like us farther away.

But this was the year in which they took the center stage. They introduced themselves, if you like, to the wider world and in the most bloody fashion possible.

They are far and away the worst terrorist group I have ever encountered in all my years of covering terrorism and the Middle East. The sheer enjoyment that their fighters seem to take from the horrors that they are perpetrating is new. The ability -- their ability to master social media and to get their message out is a new wrinkle that makes them more dangerous. It makes them -- they're able to communicate with the world, and they're able to use social media and the Internet as a recruiting tool in a way that we have not seen before.

CAMEROTA: Another crisis, this one in health care, and that was the Ebola outbreak. More than 17,000 cases at this point. Here, obviously, we did not have an outbreak. But there were some cases in the U.S. What kind of coverage is Ebola getting around the world? GHOSH: Again in Africa, quite a lot of it, because that's where

-- that's the ground zero of this particular pandemic. In other parts of the world, attention is beginning to fade. They are just too many crises, too many tragedies taking place concurrently in the world.

Ebola, once the threat of it breaking out from Africa seemed to recede, attention began outside of Africa to dwindle a little bit. Because of course, they're also thinking about the millions of Syrian refugees. We're thinking of crises all over the world.

In Africa it remains a huge problem. I mean, it's now become -- it's called the caregivers' disease, because although the fatality rate among ordinary people is 60 percent or 70 percent, which is bad enough, the fatality rate among doctors and nurses who get the disease is much more like 95 to nearly 100 percent. So ironically, those who are working the hardest to eradicate the disease are the most vulnerable, and that's a very powerful story.

CAMEROTA: Let's hope that in 2015 we can get our arms around this internationally and make a lot of progress.

GHOSH: We can all agree on that.

CAMEROTA: Bobby Ghosh, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Coming up next on this special holiday edition of NEW DAY, Republicans, they got their presents early this year. They got keys to both the House and the Senate. But there were plenty of other pivotal moments in politics in 2014. So let's take a look back.

And later, a family having a Christmas morning today, thanks to some cops who cared. It's the good stuff and I promise, you don't want to miss it, especially on Christmas

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