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CNN Sunday Morning

Fight in Court For Women Priests

Aired June 30, 2002 - 10:17   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A battle is under way in New England to allow women in the priesthood in the Catholic church.

CNN's Bill Delaney takes a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Taking on the Catholic church that won't take her on as the priest she's long dreamed of being -- Susan Rockwell.

SUSAN ROCKWELL, ATTORNEY: To express all the spiritual gifts that God has given me, it would be a fulfillment of my catholicism, and I feel a call within me to be a priest.

DELANEY: Rockwell's already a lawyer, suing now in New Hampshire federal court to revoke the church's tax exempt status, alleging discrimination because women can't be priests.

ROCKWELL: I guess the biggest argument is that Jesus chose only men for his apostles. But as the joke goes, then only Jews and fishermen could be priests today.

DELANEY: Rockwell cites among other things a 1983 Supreme Court decision, revoking the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University for racial discrimination, not then allowing interracial dating.

ROCKWELL: The Supreme Court said, "That's fine that you have that belief, you can believe anything you want, but we don't have to give you tax exempt status when your beliefs depart too far from the social norm.

DELANEY: Defendants, the IRS and Conference of Catholic Bishops didn't comment. But a spokesman for the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire concurred with what another named party, the Archdiocese of Boston, said that no women priests, doesn't mean no respect for women.

MARIA PARKER, MASSACHUSETTS CATHOLIC CONFERENCE: Women, when they're baptized, have the authority and the right to preach, teach and lead. In the Archdiocese of Boston, for instance, there are cabinet secretaries, and there are eight of them, and three of them are held by women.

DELANEY: Lawyer, Scott Faust, isn't involved in Rockwell's case, but does see problems for it.

(on camera): Why should a law firm not be able to discriminate in the sense of not allowing, say, women partners, yet the church might be allowed to discriminate, not allowing woman to be ordained?

SCOTT FAUST, ATTORNEY: First Amendment -- First Amendment has within it what we call the free establishment of religion clause.

DELANEY (voice-over): Bob Jones University was sued as a school, not a church.

Susan Rockwell, though, says linked by the internet worldwide, she has the support of thousands of other women who want to be priests. She says she'll press her case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Norwich, Vermont.

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