Reaction in Boston to Vatican Verdict
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Pope John Paul II is meeting at the Vatican with U.S. bishops. And if only we could be a fly on the wall. We're hearing that the Vatican is in direct opposition with the plan U.S. bishops came up to punish priests accused of molesting. The verdict is supposed to be releasing tomorrow, but CNN's Jim Bittermann has details early, and he's on the telephone from Rome. Jim, what do you know?</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, at least some parts of what the bishops came up with in Dallas back in June will not fly, as far as the Vatican is concerned. Bishop Wilton Gregory of the U.S. Bishop Conference has been here all week meeting with Vatican officials. He met with the pope today, and we are beginning to hear from sources who have seen the letter that the Vatican is going to send to the bishops. We're going to -- we've been hearing that, in fact, the Vatican will not go along with some elements of the procedures that the bishops came up with, especially those which might contradict church law, governing the right to appeal of those accused or convicted of pedophilia. One of the centerpieces of the agreement of the American Bishops in Dallas back in June was the so-called one strike, you're out rule, that a priest convicted of a sex crime involving a minor no matter how old the offense might be, would automatically be excluded from the priesthood. But the church's cannon law provides for a statute of limitations, and then even a valid conviction can be overturned on appeal by Vatican officials. According to those who have seen the letter to the U.S. bishops, the Vatican is supportive of their efforts, sensitive to their concerns and was the to work with them to find procedures to handle cases that satisfy both the cannon law and the bishop's desire to address the outrage among some American Catholics over the sex abuse scandal -- Carol.</s>LIN: Jim, how does the Vatican, how does the pope escape the impression what they're trying to do is give a second, third, a fourth chance for a very sick priest to attack another child again?</s>BITTERMANN: This is the conundrum the Vatican has faced from the very beginning here, when the bishops came up with the very tough procedures back in June in Dallas. It was immediately apparent that there are some procedures of cannon law, which were being contradicted by the proceedings the bishops were hoping to put into place. It is up to the bishops to make the decision about laicizing a priest, that is to say kicking him out of the priesthood. But what we've heard from the Vatican today is that cannon law still applies, and that the decision of the bishop could be overturned by the Vatican. So in fact, no matter what the bishops might like to do, their decisions might be overturned by the Vatican on appeal procedures as a priest makes his appeal. The Vatican is trying to be accommodating here, but they're saying also I think that rights of the accused have to be respected, and I think they're clearly worried that mere accusations could lead to a lot of priests being smeared by this, and some being perhaps thrown out of the priesthood. On the other hand, the victims' groups are going to say, just as you suggest, that in fact, the Vatican is hoping to sort of smooth over or put a gloss on some of these accusations and protect the priests against some of these accusations, which may, indeed, be very real accusations.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much. Obviously, the discussions of the debate goes on there. This is not the last we'll hear of it. This has been a nationwide problem here in the United States. No archdiocese has been hit harder than the one in Boston. Our Bill Delaney is getting reaction. Bill, there has got to be a lot of emotions around this?</s>BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, none of this from the Vatican from what we're hearing from our sources over there comes as much of a surprise to the sources I've spoken to here in Boston. This was widely expected to be the Vatican's posture on all this. The Vatican concerned about due process for priests. After all, here in Boston, since January, we've had more than 20 priests removed from their duties just this year for allegations of past sexual abuse, and in at least one of those cases, that priest was accused just a couple months ago, and then his accuser backed away from it, and then the priest was reinstated. This is the sort of thing the Vatican is quite concerned about. I think we should be careful about our language, too, as to whether we call this a rejection of the Vatican of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Recommendations. Rejection some people I've spoken to here think may be too strong a word. They're expressing dissatisfaction, the Vatican is, perhaps, with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop recommendations, this zero-tolerance policy that came out of Dallas last summer. But there is still a work in progress some here believe, will be the ongoing process of all this, and the Vatican is far from rejecting this. Let's remember, the pope himself came out not long ago, a couple months ago, and said, there's simply no room in the priesthood for any Catholic priests with allegations of sexual abuse against a minor in their background. So there's just some gray areas and some nuances that have to be worked with. Having said that, yes, victims will take this hard here in Boston. We expect certainly to hear again, they're continuing dissatisfaction, which they feel is the Vatican's too much in favor of priest reaction to all this, not worried nearly enough, the Vatican victims will say, about the victims.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much, Bill Delaney, reporting live from Boston, still gathering some reaction there. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com