USA
Sins of the Father
June 2002 2640
Church interior Music 00:00
Phil: He would tell my parents, I'm going to go bless the children before I leave, and I'd wake up to him fondling. And he'd be fondling or playing with himself. 00:11
Music Patrick: They'd have to be either really
Patrick stupid and blind. It was obvious that this guy was a paedophile. Sipe: I believe that this crisis in the United States 00:27
Sipe is every bit as profound as the 16th century Protestant Reformation. I think that nothing less than that kind of reformation is going to silence this. 00:42
Cardinal Law at Mass Singing
Williams: At his Boston Cathedral, Americas most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Bernard Law, celebrates Mass. Revealing the mystery of the Eucharist, this is the Church in full pomp and holiness.Woman: willing to speak out about the sexual perversion that's been going on in your church. 01:06
Woman protestor Where are these priests of integrity? Why aren't they standing here, supporting the survivors of sexual 01:29
Williams: But the congregation is thinning - and to see why you only have to peer outside - where local priest Brother Carr is confronted with the pain and anger caused by the sins of the Catholic Fathers. 01:33
Carr with protestors Carr: We are up in the air too. We are going where is this coming from? Meaning, you know, we pick up the newspaper and go -- we didnt know this, we didnt know this.Woman: Well why didnt you open your eyes god-damn-it?Priest: Good question.Woman: Why didnt you open your eyes all these years?Woman 2: How can you say you didnt know? I dont believe that. I dont believe that for a minute it was going on How many parents went to the you ask these people how many of these parents went to the priests? How can you can say it its no excuse. 01:47
Cardinal Law in church Cardinal Law: And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil 02:24
Williams: Cardinal Law is in trouble. Trouble that could land him in gaol. But his real problem -- and the Vaticans problem --is that theres a revolution underway. No more pray, pay and obey.Susan: I think that the laity are totally outraged.
Susan I think thats where the church is going to be in serious trouble and I dont think that they realise to this point how angry the Catholics, especially in America, are right now. I think that that is something that is only going to spread, and it is not something that is going to wear thin or wear off. Things may get quiet, but it is not going away. I think that this is just the beginning of a revolution. 02:48
Paula Ford at microphone Mrs Ford: Its downright offensive to the Catholics that I know to think that these are the people that are in charge of us. 03:11
Williams: Paula Ford is mad at Cardinal Law and with good reason. The Cardinal recently suggested that her six-year-old son, Gregory, could have been somehow responsible for his abuse by a priest. Gregory is much older now and a troubled young man.
Mrs Ford: What did he do, thats what Id like to know. I know what he didnt do and what he didnt do was to put the interests of children first. 03:35
Williams: The Fords are suing Cardinal Law for knowingly allowing a paedophile priest near their son. In an unprecedented move the Cardinal has been forced to answer their questions before a judge. The Cardinal consistently claims the Clinton defence -- he doesnt recall - nor does he front the media -- instead sending Archdiocese spokesman Father Christopher Coyne. 03:44
Father Coyne Coyne: And so at times to be able to say that he couldnt recall what was done because he wasnt really part of the decision making process that was being done by someone below him. 04:09
Man on megaphone Man on megaphone: If you understand anything, understand this -- we will not be silent. We are not going away. 04:23
Williams: The protestors outside the Cathedral know exactly who to blame. 04:30
Man on megaphone: We do not want any ( ? ) in Boston archdiocese of Massachusetts.
Phil: Somebody has to be in charge. It has to be the Cardinal. Somebody has to take responsibility and clearly its Cardinal Law.
Phil and Susan Phil: Clearly the cardinal has known for many, many years. Since he came here in 1984 hes been receiving reports of various priests molesting children, and he made a decision early on that the way he was going to handle it was to try to keep everything covered up. 04:49
Williams: All their lives Phil Saviano and Susan Renehan held tightly the dark secrets of their abuse. Now theyre helping others go public with a new Survivors' Network for those Abused by Priests -- or SNAP. 05:06
Phil: I knew him when I was 11 and 12 years old, living in a very small town in central Massachusetts. I was Catholic, I was not an altar boy, but I was the newspaper boy. 05:21
Super:Susan RenehanAbused by priest from age 11 to 14 Susan: He was leaving the parish and I went over to say goodbye to him, and he took me into the vestibule and gave me a French kiss, and I was 11 years old. 05:33
Phil: We were performing sex on him -- masturbation, oral sex --performing on the priest, in the church, in the church basement, in the rectory. 05:44
Susan: In the end he had me get in the car and he sexually abused me at that time, fondled me, had me fondle him and that continued really up to the next three years.Phil: There could be people in the church praying, saying the Stations of the Cross during Lent or whatever and father Holly could be in the Sacristy with a kid having sex. 06:00
Susan: He came up to my classroom after Confession and took me into the hallway and sexually abused me once again. 06:24
Phil: And yet I knew that if it was a sin Id better confess it. Well, what do you do when your abuser is also your confessor, and when youre 11 or 12 years old how do you work that out? 06:31
Susan: I never told my parents. I felt so much shame and humiliation that I felt that I couldnt cause them that kind of pain and so I never told them and my mother passed away last March, and one of the things I thought when she passed away was well now I can talk. 06:46
Exterior, St. Johns College Singing 07:06
Williams walks with Sipe Sipe: I have a very unique feeling coming back here now. I came here over 55 years ago as a youngster. 07:15
Williams: A former Benedictine monk, Richard Sipe is an internationally respected writer on the sexuality of Catholic priests. He was here at St. Johns College in Minnesota for many years.
Sipe Sipe: I was 13 years old when I came here and I was 38 years old when I was dispensed. And so I was a student here for six years and then went into the monastery for 18 years. So thats 24 years of my life was spent here. 07:38
Bells
Sipe and Williams Williams: But this is not a nostalgic visit by an old boy to his alma mater. After years of counselling victims of clergy abuse and perpetrators alike, Richard Sipe has returned on a chilling mission -- to help one of his own family who was attacked by a monk here -- a monk who told his victim 08:03
SipeSuper:Richard SipeAuthor "Sex, Priests & Power: Sipe: Look, Ive waited eight years to do that and if you dont like it, sue me, and youll get ten thousand dollars or something, but absolutely no compassion, compunction. No shred of shared experience. I mean Im really speechless with it Its just as if I thought about it too much I'm afraid I would cry. 08:24
Windows of St. John's College/Sipe Sipe: The sexual activity is passed from the top down, and its passed on, its given permission for by people who are high to others who are in training, who then abuse others. Theres no question theres a structure to it that is so ominous and so contradictory its so opposite the beauty and the warmth and the all that one lifts one spiritually and it is the dark side, it is the underbelly. 08:48
St. Cloud house shots Williams: A few kilometres down the road from St. John's College is the tiny mid-western town of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Inside the local church, a town meeting has been called to vent the publics views on the systematic abuse and cover-ups back up the road at St Johns.We were not allowed in to the meeting - but it didnt stop the anger coming to us. 09:26
Mary Mary: Theyre harbouring more -- theyre doing it already -- about possibly that being a home for base for paedophiles from around the country.Williams: Its alleged between 13 and 18 monks at St. John's are guilty of sex offences.Mary: Weve already got 18 of them sitting out there that have never been brought to justice, have never been prosecuted, have never done a day in gaol, and now they want to bring more - I tell you 09:52
People at church meeting Williams: The problem throughout America - and in fact the world -- is that until now the Catholic Church has kept law enforcement for the crime of abusing minors at bay by thinking priestly sins could be redeemed by treatment and reassignment -- a wall of canon law. 10:20
Mary: What needs to happen they need to take these places apart brick by brick and rebuild them and quit making the hierarchy of this church royalty. Theyre not royalty, theyre not above the law they should be available to civil law just like any of us.Williams: Isnt that what theyre trying to address though with these sorts of thingsMary: No!! This is just a bunch of big schmoozing, thats all this is. 10:40
Williams: Mary Oakley is not alone. 11:00
Man Man: Well, theyve got to start being accountable not harbouring these priests out at St. John's. That isnt where they -- get them in gaol.Williams: They're not doing enough?Man: Theyre not putting them in gaol. This Kinney hes got to put -- these people got to be put in gaol
Bishop Kinney Williams: Bishop John Kinney is the man taking the heat. 11:21
Kinney: I would encourage anybody where they feel that there has been an abuse of a minor that they go directly to the police. I dont think that they should come to the diocese any more, because obviously, number one, the trust level is not there and number two an independent investigation needs to happen. 11:24
Kinney at church meeting Williams: Ironically this Bishop led a 1993 Ad Hoc Committee directed to give recommendations on how to handle the molestation problem. But many of his fellow Bishops simply refused to implement the new rules 11:43
Kinney Kinney: I am very saddened and Im very angry that some of my brothers sat at the meeting and seemed to agree with everything we were recommending and went home and did not put it in to practice. That is very disturbing to me.Williams: That was the bishops?Kinney: Those were the bishops. 11:59
Sipe Sipe: I was told that Rome cant figure out why the American bishops cant control the courts and the press better. Williams: Good Lord. That came from the Vatican?Sipe: That came the Vatican, from a person relatively high up in the Vatican. By the way, it had worked this way for a long time, it worked a long time in Ireland this way.Williams: Yes, absolutely. Controlling the press and the courts. Sipe And it has worked in the United States very much this way until Boston. Boston has cracked the secret system. Thats whats shaken the foundation of everything. 12:16
Statue/Boston shots Singing 13:00
Williams: The whole story broke in Boston, a city where half the population is Catholic. It was broken by one of Americas great papers, The Boston Globe. What stunned the good people of Boston -- and America -- was that after years of secrecy and denial, the Globe got a court ruling that forced open Church files -- thousands of documents revealing how the most senior church officials knowingly moved paedophile priests around the country, and secretly paid off their victims. 13:11
Robinson Robinson: People might think from what they've seen, that theres something in the water here in Boston that causes different behaviour. And we think that the difference between here and the rest of the country is that so much documentation has come out here. 13:44
Globe office Williams: The Globes assistant managing editor Walter Robinson leads the investigative team that shone the spotlight where no-one else had dared. 10:00
Robinson Robinson: The documents came out and the documents show that the cardinals -- not just Cardinal Law but his predecessors -- the bishops, the Monsignors, all of the people at the top and many of the pastors in the parishes, for years covered up the paedophilia and hebophilia -- the attraction to teenage boys-- of so may priests, and when you look at the documents that came free in January all of the concern is for the priests. In the documents and the letters from the Cardinal, theres scant or no mention of the victims, of the kids at all. 14:10
CoyneSuper:Father Christopher CoyneSpokesman, Archdiocese of Boston Coyne: There was an effort to protect the church and to protect the priest and to protect the people from scandal. And so in many times if we could have avoided going to the authorities to avoid persecution or having the priest arrested, thats what happened.Williams: Isnt that in itself criminal behaviour? 14:48
Coyne: No, because we were not mandatory reporters. The bishop and the priests and the administration in the archdiocese were not in fact civil authorities or legal authorities. We had no legal requirement or civil requirement, in the sense of the demand of law. 15:12
I think it was part of the protective culture of the church of that time. I mean nobody, I think, ever at that, I think, sat down and said lets put children at risk. 15:28
Church/Statues/Trees Music 15:37
Williams: Its a mess. The church is short of priests and short of money and its being asked to hand over both in startling amounts. Since January the Boston archdiocese alone has been forced to give police the names of almost 100 priests. Money is suddenly very short because the very Conservative 'old money' Bostonians are putting their money where their feelings are -- somewhere else. 15:41
Old lady Old lady: I first thought with Cardinal Law, well he made a mistake, and hes a good man. But now after all this comes out in the last so many months -- other people would be in gaol.Post: Boston is a pretty conservative town and its very, very rare that people in this community stand up and challenge the leadership 16:12
Post -- and certainly in the church. The church is a very powerful institution here, but people have been so sickened by these deplorable actions and by the cover-up that it has gotten them up out of their chairs, out of the pews and the people in the pews are now saying that we have to change the system. 16:35
Man with microphone Man with microphone: I felt that I had to come up to rally in front of the cathedral yesterday. 16:52
Williams: These people are upper middle class Boston. They believe in their religion, but not in the current hierarchy. They are the Voice of the Faithful. Using the internet, they are an organisation thats grown from zero to ten thousand members across twenty nations in just four months.They are a real threat to the established administration of the Church. Grey-haired revolutionaries from the town that threw out the English nearly 300 years ago. They really are the church - they control the money - and they are afraid only of God. 16:58
PostSuper:Jim PostCo-Founder Voice of the Faithful Post: They are really the bedrock support of the church financially.Williams: They're wealthy people.Post: Many are wealthy people, but they're all really relatively affluent middle class people, and theyre voting with their pocket books as well as with their votes. And the reason that theyre here is to express their voice verbally, but then they but then theyll back that up with their chequebooks. 17:38
Its going to hurt Catholic schools its going to hurt the shelters, homeless shelters, health care services. 18:00
Voice of the Faithful gathering Williams: Why would they cut off funds to the needy? Because, despite assurances to the contrary these people believe the money could be used by the church hierarchy to get themselves out of trouble . The church has already reneged on payments they had agreed to pay to victims like Patrick and Anthony, here in conference with their lawyer Mitchell Garabadian. 18:11
Garabadian Garabadian: Oh yeah, he church is doing everything they can legally. Theyre not knocking on my door saying we made a mistake morally and were sorry we hurt your clients morally and spiritually. Theyre fighting this as though theyre a big oil company or a big gas company or a major corporation, I should say. 18:36
Patrick and Anthony Patrick: These priests get away with the dirtiest of deeds, and now 18:18:55
Williams: Along with possibly scores of others, Patrick and Anthony were molested by a notorious priest, Father John Geoghan, now behind bars. Its a depressingly familiar story and spans decades. A priest praying on children, known to his superiors and kept in the community by his superiors. 18:59
Anthony Anthony: Its like taking a murderer with a weapon and saying yeah, well you shot these people but take this gun over here and go in this town and do what you want. They let these priests go molest people. Patrick was -- the same priest who molested me could have been prevented in my time. He went on through other parishes -- four or five more parishes -- to victimise Patrick and hundreds, not hundreds, but a hundred other people. 19:19
Patrick Patrick: They let these paedophiles use their robe from 30 to 50 years to go around molesting children, and they didnt know about it. You know what I mean? 20:47
Music 19:58
Williams: It is clear there is a problem within the priesthood of paedophilia - the best studies show six percent of priests have been, and are right now, having illegal sex with minors. The fact it wasnt taken seriously could be based in the unique sexual culture of the church - the vows of celibacy - that are themselves now not believed. 20:01
Sipe: The Church has not dealt with celibacy and sexuality rationally. 20:29
SipeSuper:Richard SipeAuthor "Sex, Priests & Power: At any one time 50 percent of priests are practising celibacy, which means another 50 percent are not practising. 20:35
Williams: Richard Sipes figures are based on academic research on thousands of priests carried out over decades. The lie of celibacy has, he says, been something of an open secret. 20:44
Sipe: Heterosexual activity amongst priests is kind of winked at if it doesnt make a scandal, if it doesnt make a baby, if it doesnt make some waves. But you know, kind of, who cares. Boys will be boys, men will be men. 20:56
Robinson Williams: The Boston Globe agrees. 21:13
Robinson: What appears to be the case is that within the church there has been a lot of winking about sexual activity, even of the consenting adult type for --dare we say this --centuries, and that when a problem got too hot, when it involved children, they would move the offending priest along.
Sipe Sipe: I said in 1991 that the sexual abuse of minors is the tip of the iceberg of sexual activity of priests. The reason it is, is because the legal system and now the media also is not afraid to tackle that very difficult problem. But I said if you follow that to its foundation, its going to lead you to the highest corridors of the Vatican. And I believe that. 21:41
Williams: You mean the highest corridors of the Vatican practising unlawful sex with minors?Sipe: Some. Some, and like having sexual lives, non-celibate activity. 22:07
Coyne at press conference Coyne: Obviously this document is the fruit of a nationwide discussion around this issue 22:21
Williams: Once more Father Coyne is the mouthpiece for a media-shy clergy - and hes got the toughest job in Boston - representing a church which has lost all authority, a cardinal with no credibility, and a priesthood whose sexuality at all levels is no suspect. 22:27
Coyne Coyne: Ive been a priest for over 16 years now and while I have had instances -- Ive know of incidents with my brother priests who have broken their vow of celibacy -- either with a man or a woman -- for the most part the vast majority of priests with whom I live and work every day are committed to their celibacy and live it. There isnt this underground kind of like sexual nation out there thats working its way through the clergy. 22:44
Music
Protests Williams: The anger is such that this crisis is moving out of the Churchs control and into the hands of lawyers and police. The anger and lawsuits are no longer focused just on paedophiles, but on the Church officials who continued to knowingly employ them. The actions of the most senior Church officials of the land -- including Cardinal Bernard Law of the Archdiocese of Boston -- are now open to legal, and potentially even criminal investigation. 23:17
Robinson Robinson: My hunch would be from what's coming out around the country, is that some prosecutor somewhere is going to indict a bishop or a cardinal pretty soon. I think that's bound to happen. Theres enough anger among the Catholic laity. Much of the reaction you get from people -- theyre much angrier at Cardinal Law than they are even at the offending priests. They say well the priests were sick, they couldnt control their impulses. What about the man who was in charge of them, who was supposed to protect our children? 23:52
CoyneSuper:Father Christopher CoyneSpokesman, Archdiocese of Boston Coyne: Its unclear what the Cardinal did know and when he knew it --if anything -- and thats why were going through this long legal process right now. Some would say he knew a lot more at the very beginning than he actually in fact does.Williams: Well, documents now emerging would indicate thats the case. 24:30
Coyne: There are documents that point to the possibility of his knowing certain things, but then again the question is did he see the document, did he even bother reading it when he was signing it -- something like that. 24:51
Williams: Did he read it when he signed it. I mean that's a fairly big leap.Coyne: Well.Williams: Is that possible?Coyne: I don't know, but I would offer this --sometimes -- what do you think?Donna: I would just say its a matter of ongoing litigation 25:03
Robinson Robinson: He knows, and must know, that the vast majority of the laity in his own archdiocese would like him to go. Many people are withholding their contributions, and say that they wont give again until he does go. One does get the sense by talking to people around him that he would probably like to go, but the Vatican does not obviously want to be seen as responding to public whims or public sentiment. 25:20
Bells/Montage Singing/Church bells 25:50
Williams: The American Roman Catholic Church is agreed on one thing -- this is the greatest crisis in its history. The church hierarchy stands accused of knowingly harbouring perverts. It stands accused allowing the little children to suffer. It stands accused of breaching faith with its congregations. The cardinals, bishops and priests stand accused of putting their well-being, their positions and their reputations above the safety of the most innocent of their flocks. 26:0226:41
Credits: U.S. CATHOLICSReporter: Evan WilliamsCamera: Geoffrey LyeEditor: Garth ThomasProducer: Andrew HaughtonResearcher: Mary Ann Jolley
Sins of the Father
June 2002 2640
Church interior Music 00:00
Phil: He would tell my parents, I'm going to go bless the children before I leave, and I'd wake up to him fondling. And he'd be fondling or playing with himself. 00:11
Music Patrick: They'd have to be either really
Patrick stupid and blind. It was obvious that this guy was a paedophile. Sipe: I believe that this crisis in the United States 00:27
Sipe is every bit as profound as the 16th century Protestant Reformation. I think that nothing less than that kind of reformation is going to silence this. 00:42
Cardinal Law at Mass Singing
Williams: At his Boston Cathedral, Americas most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Bernard Law, celebrates Mass. Revealing the mystery of the Eucharist, this is the Church in full pomp and holiness.Woman: willing to speak out about the sexual perversion that's been going on in your church. 01:06
Woman protestor Where are these priests of integrity? Why aren't they standing here, supporting the survivors of sexual 01:29
Williams: But the congregation is thinning - and to see why you only have to peer outside - where local priest Brother Carr is confronted with the pain and anger caused by the sins of the Catholic Fathers. 01:33
Carr with protestors Carr: We are up in the air too. We are going where is this coming from? Meaning, you know, we pick up the newspaper and go -- we didnt know this, we didnt know this.Woman: Well why didnt you open your eyes god-damn-it?Priest: Good question.Woman: Why didnt you open your eyes all these years?Woman 2: How can you say you didnt know? I dont believe that. I dont believe that for a minute it was going on How many parents went to the you ask these people how many of these parents went to the priests? How can you can say it its no excuse. 01:47
Cardinal Law in church Cardinal Law: And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil 02:24
Williams: Cardinal Law is in trouble. Trouble that could land him in gaol. But his real problem -- and the Vaticans problem --is that theres a revolution underway. No more pray, pay and obey.Susan: I think that the laity are totally outraged.
Susan I think thats where the church is going to be in serious trouble and I dont think that they realise to this point how angry the Catholics, especially in America, are right now. I think that that is something that is only going to spread, and it is not something that is going to wear thin or wear off. Things may get quiet, but it is not going away. I think that this is just the beginning of a revolution. 02:48
Paula Ford at microphone Mrs Ford: Its downright offensive to the Catholics that I know to think that these are the people that are in charge of us. 03:11
Williams: Paula Ford is mad at Cardinal Law and with good reason. The Cardinal recently suggested that her six-year-old son, Gregory, could have been somehow responsible for his abuse by a priest. Gregory is much older now and a troubled young man.
Mrs Ford: What did he do, thats what Id like to know. I know what he didnt do and what he didnt do was to put the interests of children first. 03:35
Williams: The Fords are suing Cardinal Law for knowingly allowing a paedophile priest near their son. In an unprecedented move the Cardinal has been forced to answer their questions before a judge. The Cardinal consistently claims the Clinton defence -- he doesnt recall - nor does he front the media -- instead sending Archdiocese spokesman Father Christopher Coyne. 03:44
Father Coyne Coyne: And so at times to be able to say that he couldnt recall what was done because he wasnt really part of the decision making process that was being done by someone below him. 04:09
Man on megaphone Man on megaphone: If you understand anything, understand this -- we will not be silent. We are not going away. 04:23
Williams: The protestors outside the Cathedral know exactly who to blame. 04:30
Man on megaphone: We do not want any ( ? ) in Boston archdiocese of Massachusetts.
Phil: Somebody has to be in charge. It has to be the Cardinal. Somebody has to take responsibility and clearly its Cardinal Law.
Phil and Susan Phil: Clearly the cardinal has known for many, many years. Since he came here in 1984 hes been receiving reports of various priests molesting children, and he made a decision early on that the way he was going to handle it was to try to keep everything covered up. 04:49
Williams: All their lives Phil Saviano and Susan Renehan held tightly the dark secrets of their abuse. Now theyre helping others go public with a new Survivors' Network for those Abused by Priests -- or SNAP. 05:06
Phil: I knew him when I was 11 and 12 years old, living in a very small town in central Massachusetts. I was Catholic, I was not an altar boy, but I was the newspaper boy. 05:21
Super:Susan RenehanAbused by priest from age 11 to 14 Susan: He was leaving the parish and I went over to say goodbye to him, and he took me into the vestibule and gave me a French kiss, and I was 11 years old. 05:33
Phil: We were performing sex on him -- masturbation, oral sex --performing on the priest, in the church, in the church basement, in the rectory. 05:44
Susan: In the end he had me get in the car and he sexually abused me at that time, fondled me, had me fondle him and that continued really up to the next three years.Phil: There could be people in the church praying, saying the Stations of the Cross during Lent or whatever and father Holly could be in the Sacristy with a kid having sex. 06:00
Susan: He came up to my classroom after Confession and took me into the hallway and sexually abused me once again. 06:24
Phil: And yet I knew that if it was a sin Id better confess it. Well, what do you do when your abuser is also your confessor, and when youre 11 or 12 years old how do you work that out? 06:31
Susan: I never told my parents. I felt so much shame and humiliation that I felt that I couldnt cause them that kind of pain and so I never told them and my mother passed away last March, and one of the things I thought when she passed away was well now I can talk. 06:46
Exterior, St. Johns College Singing 07:06
Williams walks with Sipe Sipe: I have a very unique feeling coming back here now. I came here over 55 years ago as a youngster. 07:15
Williams: A former Benedictine monk, Richard Sipe is an internationally respected writer on the sexuality of Catholic priests. He was here at St. Johns College in Minnesota for many years.
Sipe Sipe: I was 13 years old when I came here and I was 38 years old when I was dispensed. And so I was a student here for six years and then went into the monastery for 18 years. So thats 24 years of my life was spent here. 07:38
Bells
Sipe and Williams Williams: But this is not a nostalgic visit by an old boy to his alma mater. After years of counselling victims of clergy abuse and perpetrators alike, Richard Sipe has returned on a chilling mission -- to help one of his own family who was attacked by a monk here -- a monk who told his victim 08:03
SipeSuper:Richard SipeAuthor "Sex, Priests & Power: Sipe: Look, Ive waited eight years to do that and if you dont like it, sue me, and youll get ten thousand dollars or something, but absolutely no compassion, compunction. No shred of shared experience. I mean Im really speechless with it Its just as if I thought about it too much I'm afraid I would cry. 08:24
Windows of St. John's College/Sipe Sipe: The sexual activity is passed from the top down, and its passed on, its given permission for by people who are high to others who are in training, who then abuse others. Theres no question theres a structure to it that is so ominous and so contradictory its so opposite the beauty and the warmth and the all that one lifts one spiritually and it is the dark side, it is the underbelly. 08:48
St. Cloud house shots Williams: A few kilometres down the road from St. John's College is the tiny mid-western town of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Inside the local church, a town meeting has been called to vent the publics views on the systematic abuse and cover-ups back up the road at St Johns.We were not allowed in to the meeting - but it didnt stop the anger coming to us. 09:26
Mary Mary: Theyre harbouring more -- theyre doing it already -- about possibly that being a home for base for paedophiles from around the country.Williams: Its alleged between 13 and 18 monks at St. John's are guilty of sex offences.Mary: Weve already got 18 of them sitting out there that have never been brought to justice, have never been prosecuted, have never done a day in gaol, and now they want to bring more - I tell you 09:52
People at church meeting Williams: The problem throughout America - and in fact the world -- is that until now the Catholic Church has kept law enforcement for the crime of abusing minors at bay by thinking priestly sins could be redeemed by treatment and reassignment -- a wall of canon law. 10:20
Mary: What needs to happen they need to take these places apart brick by brick and rebuild them and quit making the hierarchy of this church royalty. Theyre not royalty, theyre not above the law they should be available to civil law just like any of us.Williams: Isnt that what theyre trying to address though with these sorts of thingsMary: No!! This is just a bunch of big schmoozing, thats all this is. 10:40
Williams: Mary Oakley is not alone. 11:00
Man Man: Well, theyve got to start being accountable not harbouring these priests out at St. John's. That isnt where they -- get them in gaol.Williams: They're not doing enough?Man: Theyre not putting them in gaol. This Kinney hes got to put -- these people got to be put in gaol
Bishop Kinney Williams: Bishop John Kinney is the man taking the heat. 11:21
Kinney: I would encourage anybody where they feel that there has been an abuse of a minor that they go directly to the police. I dont think that they should come to the diocese any more, because obviously, number one, the trust level is not there and number two an independent investigation needs to happen. 11:24
Kinney at church meeting Williams: Ironically this Bishop led a 1993 Ad Hoc Committee directed to give recommendations on how to handle the molestation problem. But many of his fellow Bishops simply refused to implement the new rules 11:43
Kinney Kinney: I am very saddened and Im very angry that some of my brothers sat at the meeting and seemed to agree with everything we were recommending and went home and did not put it in to practice. That is very disturbing to me.Williams: That was the bishops?Kinney: Those were the bishops. 11:59
Sipe Sipe: I was told that Rome cant figure out why the American bishops cant control the courts and the press better. Williams: Good Lord. That came from the Vatican?Sipe: That came the Vatican, from a person relatively high up in the Vatican. By the way, it had worked this way for a long time, it worked a long time in Ireland this way.Williams: Yes, absolutely. Controlling the press and the courts. Sipe And it has worked in the United States very much this way until Boston. Boston has cracked the secret system. Thats whats shaken the foundation of everything. 12:16
Statue/Boston shots Singing 13:00
Williams: The whole story broke in Boston, a city where half the population is Catholic. It was broken by one of Americas great papers, The Boston Globe. What stunned the good people of Boston -- and America -- was that after years of secrecy and denial, the Globe got a court ruling that forced open Church files -- thousands of documents revealing how the most senior church officials knowingly moved paedophile priests around the country, and secretly paid off their victims. 13:11
Robinson Robinson: People might think from what they've seen, that theres something in the water here in Boston that causes different behaviour. And we think that the difference between here and the rest of the country is that so much documentation has come out here. 13:44
Globe office Williams: The Globes assistant managing editor Walter Robinson leads the investigative team that shone the spotlight where no-one else had dared. 10:00
Robinson Robinson: The documents came out and the documents show that the cardinals -- not just Cardinal Law but his predecessors -- the bishops, the Monsignors, all of the people at the top and many of the pastors in the parishes, for years covered up the paedophilia and hebophilia -- the attraction to teenage boys-- of so may priests, and when you look at the documents that came free in January all of the concern is for the priests. In the documents and the letters from the Cardinal, theres scant or no mention of the victims, of the kids at all. 14:10
CoyneSuper:Father Christopher CoyneSpokesman, Archdiocese of Boston Coyne: There was an effort to protect the church and to protect the priest and to protect the people from scandal. And so in many times if we could have avoided going to the authorities to avoid persecution or having the priest arrested, thats what happened.Williams: Isnt that in itself criminal behaviour? 14:48
Coyne: No, because we were not mandatory reporters. The bishop and the priests and the administration in the archdiocese were not in fact civil authorities or legal authorities. We had no legal requirement or civil requirement, in the sense of the demand of law. 15:12
I think it was part of the protective culture of the church of that time. I mean nobody, I think, ever at that, I think, sat down and said lets put children at risk. 15:28
Church/Statues/Trees Music 15:37
Williams: Its a mess. The church is short of priests and short of money and its being asked to hand over both in startling amounts. Since January the Boston archdiocese alone has been forced to give police the names of almost 100 priests. Money is suddenly very short because the very Conservative 'old money' Bostonians are putting their money where their feelings are -- somewhere else. 15:41
Old lady Old lady: I first thought with Cardinal Law, well he made a mistake, and hes a good man. But now after all this comes out in the last so many months -- other people would be in gaol.Post: Boston is a pretty conservative town and its very, very rare that people in this community stand up and challenge the leadership 16:12
Post -- and certainly in the church. The church is a very powerful institution here, but people have been so sickened by these deplorable actions and by the cover-up that it has gotten them up out of their chairs, out of the pews and the people in the pews are now saying that we have to change the system. 16:35
Man with microphone Man with microphone: I felt that I had to come up to rally in front of the cathedral yesterday. 16:52
Williams: These people are upper middle class Boston. They believe in their religion, but not in the current hierarchy. They are the Voice of the Faithful. Using the internet, they are an organisation thats grown from zero to ten thousand members across twenty nations in just four months.They are a real threat to the established administration of the Church. Grey-haired revolutionaries from the town that threw out the English nearly 300 years ago. They really are the church - they control the money - and they are afraid only of God. 16:58
PostSuper:Jim PostCo-Founder Voice of the Faithful Post: They are really the bedrock support of the church financially.Williams: They're wealthy people.Post: Many are wealthy people, but they're all really relatively affluent middle class people, and theyre voting with their pocket books as well as with their votes. And the reason that theyre here is to express their voice verbally, but then they but then theyll back that up with their chequebooks. 17:38
Its going to hurt Catholic schools its going to hurt the shelters, homeless shelters, health care services. 18:00
Voice of the Faithful gathering Williams: Why would they cut off funds to the needy? Because, despite assurances to the contrary these people believe the money could be used by the church hierarchy to get themselves out of trouble . The church has already reneged on payments they had agreed to pay to victims like Patrick and Anthony, here in conference with their lawyer Mitchell Garabadian. 18:11
Garabadian Garabadian: Oh yeah, he church is doing everything they can legally. Theyre not knocking on my door saying we made a mistake morally and were sorry we hurt your clients morally and spiritually. Theyre fighting this as though theyre a big oil company or a big gas company or a major corporation, I should say. 18:36
Patrick and Anthony Patrick: These priests get away with the dirtiest of deeds, and now 18:18:55
Williams: Along with possibly scores of others, Patrick and Anthony were molested by a notorious priest, Father John Geoghan, now behind bars. Its a depressingly familiar story and spans decades. A priest praying on children, known to his superiors and kept in the community by his superiors. 18:59
Anthony Anthony: Its like taking a murderer with a weapon and saying yeah, well you shot these people but take this gun over here and go in this town and do what you want. They let these priests go molest people. Patrick was -- the same priest who molested me could have been prevented in my time. He went on through other parishes -- four or five more parishes -- to victimise Patrick and hundreds, not hundreds, but a hundred other people. 19:19
Patrick Patrick: They let these paedophiles use their robe from 30 to 50 years to go around molesting children, and they didnt know about it. You know what I mean? 20:47
Music 19:58
Williams: It is clear there is a problem within the priesthood of paedophilia - the best studies show six percent of priests have been, and are right now, having illegal sex with minors. The fact it wasnt taken seriously could be based in the unique sexual culture of the church - the vows of celibacy - that are themselves now not believed. 20:01
Sipe: The Church has not dealt with celibacy and sexuality rationally. 20:29
SipeSuper:Richard SipeAuthor "Sex, Priests & Power: At any one time 50 percent of priests are practising celibacy, which means another 50 percent are not practising. 20:35
Williams: Richard Sipes figures are based on academic research on thousands of priests carried out over decades. The lie of celibacy has, he says, been something of an open secret. 20:44
Sipe: Heterosexual activity amongst priests is kind of winked at if it doesnt make a scandal, if it doesnt make a baby, if it doesnt make some waves. But you know, kind of, who cares. Boys will be boys, men will be men. 20:56
Robinson Williams: The Boston Globe agrees. 21:13
Robinson: What appears to be the case is that within the church there has been a lot of winking about sexual activity, even of the consenting adult type for --dare we say this --centuries, and that when a problem got too hot, when it involved children, they would move the offending priest along.
Sipe Sipe: I said in 1991 that the sexual abuse of minors is the tip of the iceberg of sexual activity of priests. The reason it is, is because the legal system and now the media also is not afraid to tackle that very difficult problem. But I said if you follow that to its foundation, its going to lead you to the highest corridors of the Vatican. And I believe that. 21:41
Williams: You mean the highest corridors of the Vatican practising unlawful sex with minors?Sipe: Some. Some, and like having sexual lives, non-celibate activity. 22:07
Coyne at press conference Coyne: Obviously this document is the fruit of a nationwide discussion around this issue 22:21
Williams: Once more Father Coyne is the mouthpiece for a media-shy clergy - and hes got the toughest job in Boston - representing a church which has lost all authority, a cardinal with no credibility, and a priesthood whose sexuality at all levels is no suspect. 22:27
Coyne Coyne: Ive been a priest for over 16 years now and while I have had instances -- Ive know of incidents with my brother priests who have broken their vow of celibacy -- either with a man or a woman -- for the most part the vast majority of priests with whom I live and work every day are committed to their celibacy and live it. There isnt this underground kind of like sexual nation out there thats working its way through the clergy. 22:44
Music
Protests Williams: The anger is such that this crisis is moving out of the Churchs control and into the hands of lawyers and police. The anger and lawsuits are no longer focused just on paedophiles, but on the Church officials who continued to knowingly employ them. The actions of the most senior Church officials of the land -- including Cardinal Bernard Law of the Archdiocese of Boston -- are now open to legal, and potentially even criminal investigation. 23:17
Robinson Robinson: My hunch would be from what's coming out around the country, is that some prosecutor somewhere is going to indict a bishop or a cardinal pretty soon. I think that's bound to happen. Theres enough anger among the Catholic laity. Much of the reaction you get from people -- theyre much angrier at Cardinal Law than they are even at the offending priests. They say well the priests were sick, they couldnt control their impulses. What about the man who was in charge of them, who was supposed to protect our children? 23:52
CoyneSuper:Father Christopher CoyneSpokesman, Archdiocese of Boston Coyne: Its unclear what the Cardinal did know and when he knew it --if anything -- and thats why were going through this long legal process right now. Some would say he knew a lot more at the very beginning than he actually in fact does.Williams: Well, documents now emerging would indicate thats the case. 24:30
Coyne: There are documents that point to the possibility of his knowing certain things, but then again the question is did he see the document, did he even bother reading it when he was signing it -- something like that. 24:51
Williams: Did he read it when he signed it. I mean that's a fairly big leap.Coyne: Well.Williams: Is that possible?Coyne: I don't know, but I would offer this --sometimes -- what do you think?Donna: I would just say its a matter of ongoing litigation 25:03
Robinson Robinson: He knows, and must know, that the vast majority of the laity in his own archdiocese would like him to go. Many people are withholding their contributions, and say that they wont give again until he does go. One does get the sense by talking to people around him that he would probably like to go, but the Vatican does not obviously want to be seen as responding to public whims or public sentiment. 25:20
Bells/Montage Singing/Church bells 25:50
Williams: The American Roman Catholic Church is agreed on one thing -- this is the greatest crisis in its history. The church hierarchy stands accused of knowingly harbouring perverts. It stands accused allowing the little children to suffer. It stands accused of breaching faith with its congregations. The cardinals, bishops and priests stand accused of putting their well-being, their positions and their reputations above the safety of the most innocent of their flocks. 26:0226:41
Credits: U.S. CATHOLICSReporter: Evan WilliamsCamera: Geoffrey LyeEditor: Garth ThomasProducer: Andrew HaughtonResearcher: Mary Ann Jolley