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CNN Sunday Morning
Cardinal Law Resigns
Aired December 15, 2002 - 11:05 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the crisis in the priesthood.
After Cardinal Law's resignation as archbishop of Boston's archdiocese, the faithful are looking to new leadership, but the church's troubles are far from over.
We have coverage from around the nation.
Our Bill Delaney is in Boston. Jeff Flock is in Chicago, and CNN's Brian Cabell is in Los Angeles.
Let's begin in Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation has left his parishioners with a heavy heart as well as hope, and let's check in with our Bill Delaney.
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thanks, Fredricka.
Here's a gauge of what's going on here in Boston. Holy Cross Cathedral, seat of the archdiocese of Boston, look at the protesters out there, a couple of dozen. Last Sunday we saw crowds of many hundreds.
And an indicator of the situation, the change in the pitch of emotion here, although certainly Catholics, far from any sense here yet that this is all settled.
Now, former Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law is believed to be in Massachusetts. He arrived back in the United States yesterday, arriving at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Varying reports on where he is. He may be here in Boston, but the archdiocese will not confirm that.
Now mass beginning now at Holy Cross Cathedral, the 11 a.m. mass. For the 18 years that Cardinal Law was in Boston as archbishop, he would officiate at that mass. Not this time. It's the apostolic administrator, Auxiliary Bishop Richard Steel (ph), who will say -- Richard Lennon, I'm sorry. Richard Lennon will say that mass this morning.
He is expected to give a homily and is expected in that homily to address the ongoing crisis here, Fredricka. We'll be back after mass with a report on what Bishop Lennon has to say in his homily. Back to you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be looking forward to that. Thank you very much, Bill. I appreciate it.
Well, in Illinois a longtime bishop is being mentioned as a possible successor to Cardinal Law.
Chicago bureau chief Jeff Flock has the reaction from there -- Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Fredricka.
Bishop Gregory, to whom you refer as the man whose name is out there, but, of course, we're a long way from having any sense of that.
I'm at the Holy Name Cathedral this morning; this is the flagship church for Chicago Catholics. And if anyone thinks the Cardinal Law resignation was a bad idea, I haven't found them yet.
Perhaps we can poke our head inside. This is folks at the 9:30 Central time mass. That mass in progress right now. And we talked to many of these people on their way in. Most of them just pretty eager to put this whole thing behind them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think people will now believe that the church is at least doing the right thing, and I think that the financial impact will be positive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all are sinners. He was a man before he was anything, so if we just pray and we follow all the rules of forgiveness, we're to forgive him just like we'd forgive anybody else. And if we keep that in mind we all will be okay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just think it's time for this to be over and we need to go on and this is an important part of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Catholic church is the oldest institution that we still have. I think it will survive and it will change and it, believe it or not, will be better for all of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: And, Fredricka, it's important to note that the current Chicago cardinal, Cardinal George, has pretty solid support and no serious allegations, nothing along the lines of the paper trail that, you know, that sort of has come out in Boston.
And his predecessor, too, Cardinal Bernardin here, himself the subject of priest sex abuse allegations that were later recanted and widely believed to be wrong. It put a lot of procedures in place to deal with this issue in the Chicago Catholic church, so they don't have anywhere near the depth of it here and as we said, would like to get it behind them.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Jeff Flock from Chicago, thank you very much. Well, Catholics in Los Angeles are also calling for hope and reconciliation as the archdiocese there faces its own problems.
CNN's Brian Cabell joins us from Los Angeles with reaction from there.
Hi, Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka.
Mass at the Los Angeles Cathedral started here about ten minutes ago. We haven't been allowed on the grounds of the cathedral, so we haven't talked to parishioners yet. We're hoping to talk to them later this morning.
But as in Boston, the cardinal here, Roger Mahoney, is the target of much of the criticism, some 60 priests, current and former priests, under investigation for child sexual abuse. Six of them have actually been charged, and the church has paid out almost $10 million to resolve some of these settlements.
Criticism here is that he simply hasn't done enough, that is, Cardinal Mahoney. He, a couple of days ago, issued this response, though. He says, "No priest or employee of the Archdiocese who was ever determined to have abused a minor is allowed to serve in ministry in this Archdiocese."
The church in California in particular jeopardy, because the California legislature this last session passed a new law. Until now, when a victim or alleged victim reached the age of 26, then he was no longer able to come up with charges of child sexual abuse against a church or organization. But starting in January and lasting for exactly a year, these old cases will be allowed to be brought up, that is, from 20, 30 and 40 years ago.
The Catholic church very upset about this, says the law is unfair, says it may be unconstitutional and fears a flood of new cases. In fact, the archdiocese of Los Angeles has said this is an attack by the California legislature against the Catholic church -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Cabell from Los Angeles, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 15, 2002 - 11:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the crisis in the priesthood.
After Cardinal Law's resignation as archbishop of Boston's archdiocese, the faithful are looking to new leadership, but the church's troubles are far from over.
We have coverage from around the nation.
Our Bill Delaney is in Boston. Jeff Flock is in Chicago, and CNN's Brian Cabell is in Los Angeles.
Let's begin in Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation has left his parishioners with a heavy heart as well as hope, and let's check in with our Bill Delaney.
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thanks, Fredricka.
Here's a gauge of what's going on here in Boston. Holy Cross Cathedral, seat of the archdiocese of Boston, look at the protesters out there, a couple of dozen. Last Sunday we saw crowds of many hundreds.
And an indicator of the situation, the change in the pitch of emotion here, although certainly Catholics, far from any sense here yet that this is all settled.
Now, former Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law is believed to be in Massachusetts. He arrived back in the United States yesterday, arriving at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Varying reports on where he is. He may be here in Boston, but the archdiocese will not confirm that.
Now mass beginning now at Holy Cross Cathedral, the 11 a.m. mass. For the 18 years that Cardinal Law was in Boston as archbishop, he would officiate at that mass. Not this time. It's the apostolic administrator, Auxiliary Bishop Richard Steel (ph), who will say -- Richard Lennon, I'm sorry. Richard Lennon will say that mass this morning.
He is expected to give a homily and is expected in that homily to address the ongoing crisis here, Fredricka. We'll be back after mass with a report on what Bishop Lennon has to say in his homily. Back to you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be looking forward to that. Thank you very much, Bill. I appreciate it.
Well, in Illinois a longtime bishop is being mentioned as a possible successor to Cardinal Law.
Chicago bureau chief Jeff Flock has the reaction from there -- Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Fredricka.
Bishop Gregory, to whom you refer as the man whose name is out there, but, of course, we're a long way from having any sense of that.
I'm at the Holy Name Cathedral this morning; this is the flagship church for Chicago Catholics. And if anyone thinks the Cardinal Law resignation was a bad idea, I haven't found them yet.
Perhaps we can poke our head inside. This is folks at the 9:30 Central time mass. That mass in progress right now. And we talked to many of these people on their way in. Most of them just pretty eager to put this whole thing behind them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think people will now believe that the church is at least doing the right thing, and I think that the financial impact will be positive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all are sinners. He was a man before he was anything, so if we just pray and we follow all the rules of forgiveness, we're to forgive him just like we'd forgive anybody else. And if we keep that in mind we all will be okay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just think it's time for this to be over and we need to go on and this is an important part of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Catholic church is the oldest institution that we still have. I think it will survive and it will change and it, believe it or not, will be better for all of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: And, Fredricka, it's important to note that the current Chicago cardinal, Cardinal George, has pretty solid support and no serious allegations, nothing along the lines of the paper trail that, you know, that sort of has come out in Boston.
And his predecessor, too, Cardinal Bernardin here, himself the subject of priest sex abuse allegations that were later recanted and widely believed to be wrong. It put a lot of procedures in place to deal with this issue in the Chicago Catholic church, so they don't have anywhere near the depth of it here and as we said, would like to get it behind them.
Back to you.
WHITFIELD: Jeff Flock from Chicago, thank you very much. Well, Catholics in Los Angeles are also calling for hope and reconciliation as the archdiocese there faces its own problems.
CNN's Brian Cabell joins us from Los Angeles with reaction from there.
Hi, Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka.
Mass at the Los Angeles Cathedral started here about ten minutes ago. We haven't been allowed on the grounds of the cathedral, so we haven't talked to parishioners yet. We're hoping to talk to them later this morning.
But as in Boston, the cardinal here, Roger Mahoney, is the target of much of the criticism, some 60 priests, current and former priests, under investigation for child sexual abuse. Six of them have actually been charged, and the church has paid out almost $10 million to resolve some of these settlements.
Criticism here is that he simply hasn't done enough, that is, Cardinal Mahoney. He, a couple of days ago, issued this response, though. He says, "No priest or employee of the Archdiocese who was ever determined to have abused a minor is allowed to serve in ministry in this Archdiocese."
The church in California in particular jeopardy, because the California legislature this last session passed a new law. Until now, when a victim or alleged victim reached the age of 26, then he was no longer able to come up with charges of child sexual abuse against a church or organization. But starting in January and lasting for exactly a year, these old cases will be allowed to be brought up, that is, from 20, 30 and 40 years ago.
The Catholic church very upset about this, says the law is unfair, says it may be unconstitutional and fears a flood of new cases. In fact, the archdiocese of Los Angeles has said this is an attack by the California legislature against the Catholic church -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Cabell from Los Angeles, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
