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CNN Live Sunday
Interview With Tom Roberts
Aired December 08, 2002 - 16:46 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: It isn't just lay people rising up against Cardinal Law in Boston. A group of Boston area priests have drafted a letter calling for his resignation. They plan to deliver if they get enough signatures. For more on all this, Tom Roberts, editor of the "National Catholic Reporter," and he joins us from Kansas City. Good to see you.
TOM ROBERTS, EDITOR, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: All right, I want to talk with you about both Boston as well as California. Let's begin, of course, with Boston, with protesters saying they want Cardinal Law to step down. He didn't show, but likely he's hearing about all of this activity going on throughout Boston today. Is it likely he would respond to such public pressure like this?
ROBERTS: I don't know. He hasn't yet. Except to say that he's staying. What we do know from our correspondent in Boston is that the level of anger and frustration has reached, I think, a new level. Certainly it's an unprecedented discussion that priests are having, and rather openly. And we also know from our correspondent in Rome that the congregation for bishops is finally watching this carefully. And I think that this past week of revelations has gotten their attention in a different way than it has in the past.
There is reason to suspect that they're even angry with Law at this point, and are rather dismayed at the findings that keep coming out.
So there's, I think, a new level of anger and frustration, not only in the United States, but perhaps even in Rome. And I don't know where this leads, because it's very difficult to -- there's no precedent for this sort of thing.
WHITFIELD: And not only members of the general public who are protesting, but apparently there are petitions that are being signed, many of whom are being distributed by priests themselves. What do you know about that, and is that even true?
ROBERTS: It is true. And the letter is rather forceful. I think they're saying that they give Cardinal Law great credit for a lot of the initiatives he's taken on behalf of the poor, on ecumenical affairs, but they say this he's lost credibility. He's broken trust with the people, and they hear from their own people that they want new spiritual leadership. I think this is -- you're seeing this continuing expression of frustration on the part of lay people. And one of the things that I think may come out of this is, you know, the bishops themselves are talking about it with the institution of a national lay board. We may actually begin to see some new levels of lay participation in church affairs.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk about California now, where many of the priests took to the pulpit today, letting the congregations know, letting their parishioners know that because of a new law in California, there's likely to be an onslaught of new cases that are filed, beginning the new year, because no longer is there a statute of limitations.
Might California have to follow the same path as Boston and perhaps even pursue a filing of bankruptcy?
ROBERTS: Well, it certainly sounds like a preemptive strike on the part of the church, at least warning people what may lie ahead.
I think one of the things that needs to be said is that this scandal has unraveled so far down the road that it's almost impossible to gather it back up and do justice. What are legitimate claims at this point -- and some of them are going to be very, very old. It's the tension that's been set up by bishops hiding these cases and placing priests in new parishes when they're discovered to have been abusers.
I don't know what that means. I don't know what the reaction of the people is at this point, except that we know in Los Angeles, for instance, that the diocese -- the archdiocese is also -- is already in significant financial trouble. Cardinal Mahoney has closed a number of significant ministry offices because he doesn't have the money to run them.
WHITFIELD: We heard from one of the priests in the soundbite that we just ran a little bit earlier out of California who was reading to the congregation there that the church will be responsible for legitimate claims. But at the same time, "the Catholic Church is being taken advantage of" were the words written in that statement, that perhaps the Catholic Church has deep pockets.
ROBERTS: It's seen as an institution that does have deep pockets and it's easy to get that impression because of the holdings. But it's not a corporation that -- in that sense. This is all the -- this is all the manifestation of people's faith. It's the result of money that's been given by congregations and people who contribute to the church over years.
And, you know, it looks big. And there are a lot of assets. But no one quite knows what it means to, first of all, face this number of lawsuits, and also what bankruptcy would mean. What it would mean to church assets, what it would mean to provisions the court might place on the use of those assets and reorganizing those assets. And also, no one really knows what kind of disclosure is going to be required, if a diocese were to go into bankruptcy. WHITFIELD: All right. Tom Roberts of the "National Catholic Reporter." Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Pleasure to be with you.
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 8, 2002 - 16:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It isn't just lay people rising up against Cardinal Law in Boston. A group of Boston area priests have drafted a letter calling for his resignation. They plan to deliver if they get enough signatures. For more on all this, Tom Roberts, editor of the "National Catholic Reporter," and he joins us from Kansas City. Good to see you.
TOM ROBERTS, EDITOR, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: All right, I want to talk with you about both Boston as well as California. Let's begin, of course, with Boston, with protesters saying they want Cardinal Law to step down. He didn't show, but likely he's hearing about all of this activity going on throughout Boston today. Is it likely he would respond to such public pressure like this?
ROBERTS: I don't know. He hasn't yet. Except to say that he's staying. What we do know from our correspondent in Boston is that the level of anger and frustration has reached, I think, a new level. Certainly it's an unprecedented discussion that priests are having, and rather openly. And we also know from our correspondent in Rome that the congregation for bishops is finally watching this carefully. And I think that this past week of revelations has gotten their attention in a different way than it has in the past.
There is reason to suspect that they're even angry with Law at this point, and are rather dismayed at the findings that keep coming out.
So there's, I think, a new level of anger and frustration, not only in the United States, but perhaps even in Rome. And I don't know where this leads, because it's very difficult to -- there's no precedent for this sort of thing.
WHITFIELD: And not only members of the general public who are protesting, but apparently there are petitions that are being signed, many of whom are being distributed by priests themselves. What do you know about that, and is that even true?
ROBERTS: It is true. And the letter is rather forceful. I think they're saying that they give Cardinal Law great credit for a lot of the initiatives he's taken on behalf of the poor, on ecumenical affairs, but they say this he's lost credibility. He's broken trust with the people, and they hear from their own people that they want new spiritual leadership. I think this is -- you're seeing this continuing expression of frustration on the part of lay people. And one of the things that I think may come out of this is, you know, the bishops themselves are talking about it with the institution of a national lay board. We may actually begin to see some new levels of lay participation in church affairs.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk about California now, where many of the priests took to the pulpit today, letting the congregations know, letting their parishioners know that because of a new law in California, there's likely to be an onslaught of new cases that are filed, beginning the new year, because no longer is there a statute of limitations.
Might California have to follow the same path as Boston and perhaps even pursue a filing of bankruptcy?
ROBERTS: Well, it certainly sounds like a preemptive strike on the part of the church, at least warning people what may lie ahead.
I think one of the things that needs to be said is that this scandal has unraveled so far down the road that it's almost impossible to gather it back up and do justice. What are legitimate claims at this point -- and some of them are going to be very, very old. It's the tension that's been set up by bishops hiding these cases and placing priests in new parishes when they're discovered to have been abusers.
I don't know what that means. I don't know what the reaction of the people is at this point, except that we know in Los Angeles, for instance, that the diocese -- the archdiocese is also -- is already in significant financial trouble. Cardinal Mahoney has closed a number of significant ministry offices because he doesn't have the money to run them.
WHITFIELD: We heard from one of the priests in the soundbite that we just ran a little bit earlier out of California who was reading to the congregation there that the church will be responsible for legitimate claims. But at the same time, "the Catholic Church is being taken advantage of" were the words written in that statement, that perhaps the Catholic Church has deep pockets.
ROBERTS: It's seen as an institution that does have deep pockets and it's easy to get that impression because of the holdings. But it's not a corporation that -- in that sense. This is all the -- this is all the manifestation of people's faith. It's the result of money that's been given by congregations and people who contribute to the church over years.
And, you know, it looks big. And there are a lot of assets. But no one quite knows what it means to, first of all, face this number of lawsuits, and also what bankruptcy would mean. What it would mean to church assets, what it would mean to provisions the court might place on the use of those assets and reorganizing those assets. And also, no one really knows what kind of disclosure is going to be required, if a diocese were to go into bankruptcy. WHITFIELD: All right. Tom Roberts of the "National Catholic Reporter." Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Pleasure to be with you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
