February 11th, 2013

Cuomo, Costello discuss progressive vs. traditional views of Catholic Church after pope resignation

In light of Pope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation on February 28th, CNN Anchors Chris Cuomo and Carol Costello talk about the future of the church.

Cuomo says, “When you make this decision about how do we move forward, well it assumes that these are almost political questions. But they’re not; they’re religious. And there’s so much adherence to the code. That the religion is what it is. And you live by those rules because that’s what the faith is about. And it gets very deep and confusing. Well, what is faith? What is the church? What should be the right rules? And maybe the expedience of the moment, if we just adjust to the times, you lose some sense of what the faith is at its core. Now that’s certainly the Orthodox position. On the other hand, you’ve got lots of Catholics from my generation who want to see it be more inclusive and inviting and would hope for that in the new pope –”

“Especially when it comes to women and contraception,” Costello said. She added, “That is very important to Catholic women. Almost 98% of Catholic women have taken birth control at some point in their lives.”

“Listen, and we’re dealing with a church where there are no women priests, there are no women in real positions of power. Not to denigrate in any way the nuns and the amazing influence they had on many lives, including mine as a Catholic student,” Cuomo replied. “But, this pope himself, very interesting, called the Rottweiler of God, so strict to orthodoxy – he got into a point of confusion. When he was talking about Africa, the first time that they talked about contraception, he said it’s only making the problem worse. And everyone went crazy. They didn’t like it. And then later on, when asked the question, about whether or not if a prostitute had a condom on when she was doing her job, would that make her a sinner. And he said, maybe not because you could say that using the contraception was putting herself in a position of moral responsibility.”

CNN Newsroom airs 9am – 4pm ET on CNN.