captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: there's a reason we use a japanese word for a catastrophic seismic wave. japan has more tsunamis than anywhere else on earth, and nine days ago they saw one that rewrote history. it was triggered by a 9.0 earthquake and helped set off the biggest nuclear emergency since chernobyl. an american team is working with the japanese in tokyo in a desperate attempt to get the reactors under control. >> it's just so uncertain. this is unprecedented, you know, unchartered territory that the consequences could be greater than we expect.

>> pitts: mark twain's "adventures of huckleberry finn" is one of the greatest works of american literature and it's always been one of the most controversial. >> why is there a big deal about this right now? >> pitts: today some school districts banned the book, and national debate over censorship has caught fire, and it's all about one word. >> one of the first things i do is i make everybody say it out loud about six or seven times. >> pitts: the "n" word? >> nigger. get over it. now let's talk about the book. >> safer: archbishop timothy dolan of new york is hard to miss. this burly, overweight, chur unic irish-american who has been called the american pope charges through life like a holy bulldozer. >> you bet i remember you. i would be sweating if we were outside. >> safer: hands reaching. >> where did you get the food?

>> safer: a tireless promotor of all things catholic. >> i was amazed at the media coverage. >> safer: he's always ready to refuel. >> stick around. get me a cold beer. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm byron pitts. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." anythinit was 1995.

bree olson natalie kenly. your place. >> kroft: there's a reason we use a japanese word for a catastrophic seismic ocean wave. japan has had more tsunamis than anyplace else on earth.

and the massive 9.0 earthquake nine days ago, and the subsequent tsunami, has left nearly 8,500 people dead, some 13,000 missing and nearly a half million homeless. and it leaves japan teetering on the edge of a nuclear crisis that has already resulted in measurable amounts of radioactivity turning up in milk, drinking water and in some crops. scott pelley and a "60 minutes" team have been in japan for more than a week, travelling from tokyo to the port city sendai to the once-beautiful resort of matsushima and into the zone surrounding the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. there, tonight, emergency crews are struggling to restore cooling and stabilize pressure inside the reactors. what we have found in japan is a catastrophe that reveals both the power of nature and the fragility of human technology. the fukushima daiichi crisis is not one nuclear emergency, it is four potentially catastrophic events standing side-by-side.

in all, there are six reactor stations; numbers one through four are in peril. last week, crews risked their lives to get water onto melting uranium fuel. through explosions and blasts of radioactive steam, a few hundred japanese joined battle with the most powerful force known to man. one of the americans responding to the emergency is julia nesheiwat. she's a state department official who was already in japan working on nuclear issues. she served, in washington, as deputy chief of staff to the director of national intelligence. in tokyo, she's been on the fukushima disaster from the start. we're providing the full resources of the united states government, everything we've got? >> nesheiwat: yes. absolutely. >> pelley: our best people are on this? >> nesheiwat: yes. they are working non-stop around the clock in each of the operations centers. >> pelley: they are now working side by side with the japanese? >> nesheiwat: yes. >> pelley: but that wasn't always the case. >> nesheiwat: not in the

beginning, no. >> pelley: an american team of top experts arrived shortly after the disaster, but they were largely stuck at the u.s. embassy. the japanese didn't think they needed the help, but, by last tuesday, the emergency was out of control and the u.s. gave the japanese an ominous private warning. >> nesheiwat: that if we don't expand the efforts, we'll require heroic work that could be, you know, quite devastating for the workers. >> pelley: what did we mean by that? >> nesheiwat: that means they could very well lose their lives. >> pelley: an official with the u.s. government told the japanese that your people are going to have to die to save that plant unless you let us help you? >> nesheiwat: yes. >> pelley: at one point during the week, the hazard was so great, the japanese took all but about 70 workers out of the plant. their problem is water. the systems that keep the radioactive fuel rods cool, failed. the rods are partially melting,

releasing radiation. and its not just the reactors. there are also used fuel rods, essentially nuclear waste, stored in pools nearby. they're also losing water. american experts fear one of these pools is already dry. nesheiwat told us the danger is multiplied because the reactors are so close to each other. >> nesheiwat: that is a grave concern at this time. if... if there is an explosion, if there is a meltdown, a fire, it can absolutely affect the neighboring plants. >> pelley: what would that mean? >> nesheiwat: goodness, i don't even want to think what that could mean. that's just something that... we would have to really plan for it at the greatest scale, and we're hoping and praying that that's not the case. >> pelley: all last week, the u.s. said the crisis was more grave than the japanese apparently believed, and, so far, the u.s. experts have been right. last wednesday, the american embassy began a voluntary evacuation of u.s. citizens.

it wasn't until two days later that the japanese acknowledged the threat was greater than they'd thought. the japanese declared a voluntary evacuation zone of 12 miles around the plant. the u.s. says it should be 50 miles. there is great uncertainty. top experts disagree on fundamental questions such as whether melting fuel rods would cause an explosion or just a fire. answers are critical to planning for a bigger emergency. >> nesheiwat: it's just so uncertain. this is unprecedented, you know, uncharted territory that... the consequences could be greater than we expect. >> pelley: more than 50 american experts are in japan, including engineers from the nuclear regulatory commission and public health advisors. many are working in three joint emergency operations centers around tokyo. one of their biggest problems is getting a good look at the damaged reactors. surveillance pictures have been poor. >> nesheiwat: you're dealing with the smoke. you're dealing with, you know, like i said, the debris.

it is just very difficult to make such an assessment of the situation. i mean, you're really trying to scrutinize the pixels of the picture. >> pelley: the u.s. team is using cameras and sensors, carried by drones in the air and robots on the ground, to get a clearer idea of what's going on. no one knows what will happen at fukushima, but it's important to remember, even without this nuclear crisis, japan has already suffered a catastrophe. this was the moment that altered the course of japanese history. the tsunami inundated about 400 miles of the northern coast. you can't picture the enormity of it, so we stopped in one small town. matsushima was said to be among the most beautiful places in japan, a famous vacation spot. the name has the same ring to a japanese as big sur or cape cod

does to an american. "matsushima" means "pine tree island." the trees are about all that's left. what was the personality of this town? what was this place like? >> david chumreonlert: oh, everyone's very friendly. >> pelley: david chumreonlert is a native of texas who's been teaching english in matsushima schools a couple of years. we met over a canal where tourists came to fish. that's a bridge we're on. the canal is full of houses and cars. this is where the kids from the school came from. >> chumreonlert: yeah, they would come from here and around this area. >> pelley: nobiru elementary school is around the corner. david chumreonlert was among the teachers and students who were wrapping up the day when the building began to roll on the greatest quake japan has ever seen. >> chumreonlert: the principal was like, "oh, this is a big one, so everyone get under a desk." and then it quieted down, and the teachers were like, "let's go check the classrooms to make

sure everyone is okay and start getting everyone to the gym." >> pelley: this is the earthquake-reinforced gym which stands across the playground from the three story school. >> chumreonlert: some guy with a helmet on, he came in and he was like, "tsunami's coming." and then the principal was like, "okay, everyone, run back to the school." the fifth grade teachers, he was, like, in front of the group, and he was outside. and he said... he, like, looked down this way and he saw a wall of water, so he's like, "everyone, run back inside." >> pelley: it was too late... >> chumreonlert: yeah, it was too late... >> pelley: ...to get out of the gym. >> chumreonlert: ...to get out of the gym. >> pelley: inside, there were around 200 people-- children from six to 11, parents who'd come to pick them up. less than 30 minutes after the quake, they were swept up in a surge of seawater and debris. >> chumreonlert: it was blasting through the door, and it was like, when it was hitting the walls, it would make a kind of whirlpool motion. at that point, it had risen up to the stage level, and by then everyone was on the stage. >> pelley: the water didn't stop there? >> chumreonlert: no, it didn't. >> pelley: what happened next? >> chumreonlert: i realized it's probably going to get higher, i don't know. so i grabbed the side of the stage, the wall, because i

didn't want to get... and then, like, a grandpa and some lady who was hanging on to him, they, like, washed by me, and they managed to grab my shoulder. and so, they were, like, hanging on to me, and i could feel it getting pulled. >> pelley: what happened to the older man and woman who were holding on to you? >> chumreonlert: i don't know. i don't know what happened to them. >> pelley: what happened then? >> chumreonlert: i grabbed the railing, and i... somehow, i found my footing. i think it was the top of the basketball goal. >> pelley: the water was that deep. >> chumreonlert: yeah. it came all the way up to the second, the balcony. >> pelley: this is the goal and the railing behind. there's narrow standing room between the railing and the wall. >> chumreonlert: i saw, like, one of my kids. like, he was, like, struggling, so i grabbed him. i grabbed his shirt, and i was able to, like, pull him over to the side and he was able to grab onto the railing. and i helped heave him over. and i saw a big desk with, like, four or five of my kids, like, hanging on to it, and they were shouting, "help me, help, help us, help us." and i was able to grab a hold of the desk and pull it closer to me, and then was able to grab them one by one, and we were

able to get them over. and then there was one more lady, and we got her over, too. >> pelley: in two hours, night had fallen. you were in the total darkness, in the freezing cold with the seawater all around you for four hours, five hours? >> chumreonlert: about six hours. >> pelley: wondering when the rescuers would come. >> chumreonlert: yeah. ( sigh ) and then the aftershocks would come, and everyone would huddle down together and, like, afraid again. >> pelley: what were you saying to the children over that long dark night? >> chumreonlert: i just kept saying, "hang in there, hang in there," and just, like, tried to give them a little smile, make them smile a little bit. >> pelley: in a wrecked house nearby, we found a child rescued from the gym, six-year-old sayna suzuki, in her grandmother's arms. it came all the way up to here? she told us, "the water came up to my neck, up to my face." how did you get away?

"a teacher grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up out the water." we don't know if it was david chumreonlert who grabbed her. there's a lot that's unknown. how many survivors would you estimate were up there on the balcony? >> chumreonlert: i'm hoping at least over 100. i hope, hope. i'm not sure, though. >> pelley: we came back to the gym and were surprised to find those who did not survive lying across the basketball court and up there, on the stage. families searched for loved ones, lifting blankets one-by- one in a combination of hope and dread. there are about 85 bodies in the gym, by my count. it's now five days since the tsunami.

the army has come in and done the best they can. they pulled a car out of this entranceway and wrapped most of the bodies up in army blankets. but the fact of the matter is, there is no place to put this many bodies. the morgues are completely full and, frankly, there aren't enough people to move them. it is a fact in this part of japan that, at this moment in time, there are not enough living to take care of the dead. in matsushima, we found this: one small unit of japanese self defense force engineers. they seemed to vanish in the vast destruction. they're clearing roads and searching houses, but the response so far seems strangely small. they're spread thin over the 400 miles. there's no sense of hurry. the engineers knock off at dusk, a sign they're not expecting to rescue anyone, not now. all across northern japan, nearly half a million are homeless, nearly a million have

no power, and two million are without water. in the coastal city of sendai, a city of a million people about the size of detroit, we saw nearly 3,000 residents patiently waiting for a grocery store to open for the first time in days. there are shortages of food and lines for gasoline stretch half a mile. add to this what you might call nuclear refugees. thousands are in shelters because their homes are too close to the fukushima reactors. tomonori kato came in to be checked for radiation. he was clean, but his home is half a mile from the nuclear plant. he's lived there 50 years. he told us he expects he'll never return. the nuclear refugees were loaded on buses and hurried away, carrying almost nothing. not only are their homes in danger of being irradiated, but

every possession they own. yoshihiko igarashi's house is three miles from the plant. his daughter was born there. she turned 20 last week in the shelter. like everyone, they've laid out a few square feet on the floor with no idea how long they'll be here. 1,600 people are in this shelter alone. it's just 20 miles from where the reactor fires are burning. if you believe u.s. experts, that's much too close. igarashi told us he feels that way, too. the japanese are, for the moment, balancing between the disaster that has happened and the disaster that awaits. the prime minister told his people they will rebuild japan, but, all along the northern coast and in the town of pine tree island, there is a powerful sense that, for now, time has stopped.

>> cbs money watch update sponsored by: >> mitchell: good evening. at&t will buy t-mobile for $39 billion in a merger of the second and fourth biggest u.s. wireless carriers. nissan will resume auto production in japan this week. gas rose 7 cents in two weeks to an average of $3.57 a gallon. and "limitless" won at the weekend box office. i'm russ mitchell, cbs news. working in the garden, painting.

>> pitts: from the moment it was published in 1885, mark twain's "adventures of huckleberry finn" caused controversy. it challenged authority, poked fun at religion, and was accused of leading children astray. what's surprising is that 125 years later, "huckleberry finn" is still making news. today, there are school districts in america that ban this american classic for one reason, one word: "nigger," a word so offensive, it's usually called the "n-word."

now, a publishing company in alabama says that schools don't have to change their reading list, because they changed "huckleberry finn." their newly released edition removes the n-word and replaces it with "slave," a bold move for what's considered one of the greatest works in american literature. mark twain's "huckleberry finn" is a classic set before the civil war. the story's told by huck, a white boy escaping an abusive father, and his adventures with a black man named jim, escaping slavery. "huckleberry finn" is set along the mississippi river. in it, twain used the n-word 219 times. to some people, the word gets in the way of the story's powerful message against slavery. to others, twain is simply capturing the way people talked back then. are you censoring twain? >> randall williams: we certainly are accused of censoring twain. >> pitts: randall williams is co-owner and editor of newsouth books, publishers of the sanitized edition of tom sawyer

and huckleberry finn that replaces the n-word with "slave". it's aimed at schools that already ban the book, though no one knows how many have. williams says they are not trying to replace twain's original, n-word included. >> williams: if you can have the discussion and you're comfortable having the discussion, have it, have it with it in there. but if you're not comfortable with that, then here's an alternative for you to use. and i would argue to you that it's still powerful. >> pitts: the new edition drew powerful reactions from twain scholars, the press, and ordinary readers, and it's worth noting most of the articles don't spell out the word, either. what's it say that people have been so passionate about it? >> williams: i think it says that race continues to be a volatile and divisive subject. >> pitts: in this passage, huck says the word three times in two sentences.

"jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he couldn't hardly notice the other niggers. niggers come miles to hear jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country." what do you think of "huckleberry finn?" >> david bradley: it's a great book. it's one of the greatest books in american literature. >> pitts: author david bradley teaches at the university of oregon. he says the key to understanding huckleberry finn is through twain's use of language as the friendship between huck and jim unfolds. >> bradley: when huck comes back to that raft, he says, "they're after us." he doesn't say, "they're after you"; he says, "they're after us." and that's the moment when it becomes about the american dilemma, it becomes about, "are we going to get along?" >> pitts: school districts struggling to teach "huckleberry finn" have called in david bradley. he believes strongly in teaching twain's original text. >> bradley: one of the first things i do is i make everybody say it out loud about six or seven times. i get all... >> pitts: the n-word? >> bradley: yeah, "nigger." "get over it," you know. ( laughs ) "now, let's talk about the book." >> pitts: students at woodbury

high school in minnesota are reading the original book. but there are differences in how their teachers approach it. nora wise says the word out loud in class; karen morrill does not. >> karen morrill: what happens when we... when i say "the n-word" and i don't pronounce n-i-g-g-e-r. people are scared to talk about race. >> pitts: are you scared to talk about it in class? >> morrill: no. >> pitts: but you will not say out loud the n-word? >> morrill: that's just such as minor part. >> pitts: aren't you giving the word more power than it deserves by not saying it? >> morrill: i didn't give the word its power; it came into my classroom with that power. why is there a big deal about this right now? >> people find the word extremely offensive. >> morrill: i might not always reach and nourish and nurture every single student, but i can certainly do my best not to harm them. >> pitts: when nora wise says

the word, she feels its impact on students is worth it. >> nora wise: it makes sense in this novel to teach it with the controversy. it makes sense to bring up all of the hard emotions. they come with it. it's not just a classic book. it's not just the way the words are written, it's the ideas. >> pitts: 11th graders melvin efesoa, joseph jaurdio and ryan farrell are confronting the controversial word and their feelings about it. >> ryan farrell: i feel that that word is in there for a reason. twain put the word in there to get our attention. and every time we read it, it does exactly that-- it gets our attention. >> joseph jaurdio: if you replace that with the word "slave," of course, people would be less bothered, but i think twain wants people to be a little bit bothered. >> pitts: melvin, you smiled. >> melvin efesoa: i smiled because, like, i just kind of think that constant use of "the n-word," and it's... it... to me, it feels unnecessary. >> pitts: why? what is it ab.... it's just a word, right? what is it about this word? >> efesoa: it reflects on african-american history back then. and like i said, it's like... it's a history that nobody wants to relive. >> pitts: do you think the discomfort starts and stops with the n-word, or the discomfort

extends to a conversation about race? >> williams: in this specific instance, it is the word itself that is the problem. people are not coming up saying, "well, we can't teach this book because it's got discussion about slavery." what they're saying is, "we can't teach the book because it's got all these repetitive instances of the offensive n-word in there, and therefore, we're not going to use it." >> pitts: the publisher says they are providing a service. >> bradley: they are. >> pitts: there are school districts that won't deal with "huckleberry finn," and they remove this word, and now they're able to have their students read and deal with "huckleberry finn." >> bradley: no, it's not "huckleberry finn" anymore. we're talking about students-- what are we teaching them? this may be their first encounter with slavery. it shouldn't be their only one. but that's one of the reasons we can't mess around with it. there is a reality there that you cannot avoid. >> pitts: but do you... do you lose that reality when you take out the "n-word" and replace it with "slave"?

>> bradley: yeah. "slave" is a condition. i mean, anybody can be a slave. and it's nothing for anybody to be ashamed of. but "nigger" has to do with... with shame. "nigger" has to do with calling somebody something. "nigger" was what made slavery possible. >> williams: it's... well, the word is poison. >> pitts: you used the word? >> williams: oh, i used to. i grew up saying the word. it was all i knew. i never gave it any thought. >> pitts: williams runs newsouth books in montgomery, alabama, cradle of the confederacy, and where jim crow was once king. >> we don't want the niggers going in this school. it's a white school. >> pitts: williams, a son of alabama, says the civil rights movement changed him, as it did much of the south. for him, the subject of race and the n-word goes beyond any debate about the book. it's also about how far the south has come. >> williams: we learned to think differently about it, and thank god we did. i mean, the movement didn't

free, you know, black southerners. i mean, it freed white southerners, too, and you know... >> pitts: freed you from? >> williams: freed us from the sin of... you know, this... this was a big... a big sin. >> pitts: kids use it-- you know, the... the rap. >> bradley: well... >> pitts: artists use it, the black rap artists use it, as you know, as i well know. brothers use it all the time... >> bradley: oh, yeah. >> pitts: ...when they talk to each other. >> bradley: i love it. >> pitts: sorry? >> bradley: i love it. >> pitts: you love it? >> bradley: yeah, yeah. "you're my nigger, man." look, what... in every group, there are words that you use, there are inflections, there is knowledge about what a word means to you or to me or... how i mean it when i say it, that is not an insult. i think one of the things that offends white people about it is that they can't say it. they say, "well, is it because of my inflection, or is it because..." it's... no, because it's... because you're not us. jeff foxworthy says, you know, "you can't make jokes about a redneck unless you are one."

you can't "nigger" unless you are one, and unless you are willing to accept everything that goes with it, which is a lot of good stuff, you know? and that's what they want, they want that good stuff. >> pitts: what's the good stuff that goes with that word? >> bradley: having an awareness that you have... your people have overcome centuries of oppression. the pride of saying, "yeah, you can say anything you want and it won't slow me down one bit." >> pitts: but the word is hurtful. >> bradley: the word is not hurtful. how it is used is hurtful. the people who is saying is hurtful. >> pitts: 17-year-old jeremy richardson is still trying to figure out how to react to the word, especially as the only black student in nora wise's english class. >> jeremy richardson: and then, having the teacher read it out loud to everyone, then everyone's looking at me like, "oh, well, she just said that. what are you going to do about it?" like, i didn't really have a reaction. i just... i basically ignored the fact. >> pitts: you didn't have an external reaction? >> richardson: yeah. >> pitts: internally, though, what was going on? >> richardson: internally, i just thought about it like, this is wrong. like, i don't think that she should be saying this out loud.

>> pitts: but why didn't you say something at that moment, do you think? >> richardson: i don't know. maybe because i didn't want anyone to see that i was having a problem with her reading the word. that may be it. but i definitely did have a problem with it. >> pitts: that's an uncomfortable conversation for students? >> wise: mm-hmm. >> pitts: is... >> wise: it's uncomfortable for me, too. >> pitts: wise spends three days in class talking about race even before starting "huckleberry finn." how do you balance your strong conviction about using the words that are in the book with the notion that some of your students may be pained by that word. >> wise: i don't have a callused view about the pain, i don't. but on the other hand, i do feel like any time you come up against something that creates tension or creates discomfort, it is a point at which you could grow. and i think that life, in general, has many, many moments like that.

and i don't think that teaching kids to step away from that is healthy. >> williams: is the argument that these kids should be subjected to pain? i mean, you know, i don't, you know, see the point of that. >> pitts: newsouth books printed 7,500 copies of its edited version of "huckleberry finn," and say they've sold nearly all of them. >> williams: the only thing missing from their, you know, reading of this will be the word itself. have we taken every bit of the value of twain out? well, that's a preposterous argument. i... i just... i can't even see that argument. >> pitts: what the publisher's saying, by introducing this new edition, they can still have the teachable moment and have the conversation about race. you look puzzled. >> bradley: well, you t... you use the term "teachable moment," and that's what "nigger" gives you. that's why it's important to keep it there. i call "huckleberry finn" a "power tool" when it comes to education.

there are so many things that pry things open. it's like the jaws of life. and you say a teachable moment-- that teachable moment is when that word hits the table in a classroom, everybody goes, "whoa!" "okay, let's talk about it. let's talk about where it came from. let's talk about why you all went "whoa," when you don't go "whoa" about anything else, when y'all don't go "whoa" when it's blasting around in the parking lot in what y'all call music. if you take out everything in a book that causes the teachable moment, you have no teachable moments. . >> welcome to the cbs sports updaiments i'm greg gumbel. here's a will be at some of the key regional semifinal matchups in the ncaa tournament sweet 16. in the east region, number four kentucky faces the overall number-one seed ohio state. out west, uconn plays number two san diego state. in the southeast, b.y.u. squares off against number-two florida, while last year's runner up

butler battles wisconsin. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. but i was still skating on thin ice with my cholesterol.

>> safer: the past decade has been devastating for the catholic church-- seemingly endless cases of sexual abuse by priests, and bishops who turned a blind eye to it. and multi-billion-dollar payouts to victims, all of which led to a steady loss of the faithful. one man the american church hopes can change all that is timothy dolan-- for two years now, the archbishop of new york, the nation's most prominent pulpit. he's also been called the "american pope," after his election to head the u.s. conference of bishops. his mission, as he sees it, is to change a perception of the church that ranges from negative to irrelevant. he wants to see the old church made new-- zero tolerance of wayward priests, and an emphasis

on what he calls that most pure and noble experience catholicism offers. to accomplish his mission, his main weapon seems to be that indefinable quality called charm. >> timothy dolan: make sure you pray for your bishop. come on in. off we go to work. >> safer: timothy dolan is hard to miss. this burly, overweight, cherubic irish-american charges through life like a holy bulldozer. >> dolan: hi, everybody. you bet i remember you. >> safer: his brow gleaming... >> dolan: i would be sweating if we were outside. >> safer: ...hands reaching... >> dolan: where did you get the food? >> safer: ...a laugh-a-minute hugging, glad-handing and backslapping everyone from street cops to big-time donors. >> dolan: thank you. thank you. >> safer: ...a tireless promoter of all things catholic. >> dolan: i was amazed at the media coverage. where you been? >> safer: and always ready to refuel. >> dolan: stick around. get me a cold beer. how nice to meet you. >> safer: did you always have the... dare i say, the gift of the gab? >> dolan: yes, according to my

mom, i... yes. you couldn't shut me up. you know, the italians have a great saying that, "hey, you have to make gnocchi with the dough you got." well, god knows, i got the dough. whatever dough god gave me, that's the gnocchi i'll make. >> safer: gnocchi, for the uninitiated, is a high-carb pasta the good pastor is more than familiar with, as is evident when the 61-year-old dolan dons his robes to say mass at st. patrick's cathedral. he takes obvious joy in the pageantry, pounding his bishop's staff as he bulldozes his way into church, beaming broadly at parishioners and politicians alike. >> governor, how are you? >> safer: a man in love with his job. when did you know you wanted to be a priest? >> dolan: i can't really remember a time i wasn't hypnotized by the priesthood. >> safer: did you ever have any doubts along the way? >> dolan: there would be three times i could remember when i felt a particular friendship with and attraction to three

particular girls that i... i think back upon fondly, that i thought, "i wonder if a life of celibacy is... is mine." and with the help of other people and with prayer, i said, "yeah, i... i think so." >> safer: he was born in st. louis, the son of an aircraft engineer. entered seminary age 14 and destined for stardom. secretary to the papal nuncio, rector of the american seminary in rome. and archbishop of milwaukee, where he won over the flock when he gave a homily wearing a green bay packers' cheesehead. baseball, however, is a bit trickier. >> dolan: they asked me when i got here, "are you cardinals, mets, brewers or yankees?" and i said, "when it comes to baseball, i think i can be pro- choice." >> safer: he lives in a small mansion connected by a tunnel to

st. patrick's where, each day, he must pass his own final resting place, a constant reminder that his path to glory leads but to the grave. >> dolan: i'm supposed to go here. now, although cardinal egan teases me that he wonders if one is going to be enough, so i don't know what we're going to have to... i might have to rent a space and a half. >> safer: isn't there something a little bit unnerving about knowing where you're going to be buried? ( laughter ) >> dolan: i find it liberating. >> safer: dolan is shepherd to two and a half million catholics, but it's a rapidly changing demographic, with the traditional irish and italians being replaced by hispanics. >> the most popular shrine at st. patrick's is our lady of guadaloupe. >> safer: nearly 400 parishes that stretch from long island to the catskills to new york city. and he is constantly on call. >> dolan: tom, how are you? there are budgets to be balanced. we're hoping it brings us financial stability. i was hoping you were going to

ask about that. >> safer: and future generations to embrace. >> ooh. hi, sweetheart. nice to see you. >> safer: they've heaped so much on you. do you ever have time to really be a priest? >> dolan: yeah, i have lost my appetite. i'm not eating anymore. >> safer: his grace is also aware that hope and prayer does little to reduce the waistline, so he multitasks on his bike to nowhere... >> dolan: estandando. >> safer: ...brushing up on his spanish... >> dolan: cobiendo. >> safer: dolan is not in denial about his ever-expanding girth, and certainly not about the problems facing the church >> dolan: for the first time in catholic history, we have a large group of catholics who are saying, "i'm no longer in the church." that's a big problem. we got a big problem that our people think our preaching is no good, while others have thought

that we continue, unfortunately, to cling to outmoded doctrines and... and beliefs. >> safer: but if you think dolan plans to push for changes in those doctrines and beliefs, think again. despite the jolly open demeanor, he's about as conservative as they come. >> dolan: they say there aren't many people to my right. that's what the critics say. >> safer: he is unwavering on what he calls the "settled questions"-- abortion, birth control, ordination of women, gay marriage, and celibacy. no question that you're conciliatory, that you like to have dialogue, but underneath that, you're an old-fashioned conservative-- i mean, in the sense that of right-wing conservative... >> dolan: i would bristle at being termed "right-wing." but if somebody means enthusiastically committed and... and grateful for the timeless heritage of the church, and feeling that the... my best service is when i try to preserve that and pass that on in its fullness and beauty and

radiance, i'm a conservative, no doubt. >> safer: last fall, he was unexpectedly elected over a more liberal candidate to become president of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops. john allen, senior correspondent for "the national catholic reporter," is writing a book about dolan. >> john allen: he is easily the most charismatic and high profile figure on the american catholic stage. >> safer: what does his election tell us then? >> allen: the bishops pretty rationally understand they've got an image problem in the court of public opinion in the united states in the early 21st century. they wanted to elect their best front man, and... and that front man is archbishop tim dolan of new york >> safer: allen says the bishops hope that the sheer force of dolan's personality can help the church move beyond the sex abuse scandals. >> allen: the sexual abuse crisis that we have lived through over the last decade is the most serious crisis ever to hit the american catholic church. that has been a cancer, in terms of the internal life of the church, that is still spreading.

>> safer: it's a crisis dolan witnessed first hand as archbishop of milwaukee. he was sent there to replace a bishop who resigned amid his own sex scandal, and dolan had to deal with a rash of child abuse cases. he revealed the names of 43 predatory priests, and had to sell church property to pay tens of millions of dollars to victims. >> dolan: those where some of the more difficult, wrenching, touching moments in my life. some of them were terribly painful and did not go well. others, i remember with gratitude-- crying together, praying together. those were very powerful moments that you don't forget. >> safer: do you fear that the... the after effects of... of these scandals are just going to live on and on and on? >> dolan: in some ways, i don't want it to be over, because this is such... this was such a crisis in the catholic church that, in a way, we don't want to get over it too easily. this needs to haunt us.

>> safer: defending and celebrating the church is his life's work, and the work isn't exclusive to new york. we caught up with him in rome, where he was on official business for the vatican. do you get any kind of special feeling when you're here, or is it just simply a visit to world headquarters? >> dolan: no, there's always a... it's always like coming home. >> safer: dolan took us to his old haunt-- the north american college, the american seminary that trains the best and the brightest. >> oh, sure... >> safer: dolan says it is essential that these men are fully prepared for what he calls a "happy, healthy, celibate priesthood." but aren't you losing some really good people that way? >> dolan: i don't think there's any denying it, morley, that perhaps if the church dropped its obligation of celibacy, there might be... there would be more candidates right away. >> safer: an awful lot of... of practicing catholics feel that the degree of abuse that is

going on would not be happening if the priesthood was attracting couples. >> dolan: i don't know if... i don't know if... if what we know, scholarship-wise, would back that up, morley. the greatest culprits in sexual abuse are, unfortunately, married men. so, i don't know if marriage is the answer, although i would have to agree with you-- that's a popular argument. i don't think it holds water... >> safer: what do you make of the... of the church's response to the abuse scandals? >> dolan: when you think of what happened, both that a man who proposes to act in the name of god would've abused an innocent young person, and that some bishops would have, in a way, countenanced that by reassigning abusers-- that's nothing less than hideous. that's nothing less than nauseating. the second story, morley, is the church's reaction to that, which i think has been good. it's been strong, it's been rigorous. >> safer: to an awful lot of people, catholics, feel that as awful, as horrible as the crime

was, the cover-up was worse than the crime. >> dolan: and i'd say there's some truth in that. you'd think that the church of all would know better. so, yeah, there's no denying that, morley. that was... that was a terrible thing that's over with. >> safer: but it's not-- revelations keep coming. since our interview, the archdiocese of philadelphia found itself embroiled in yet another sex abuse scandal still, dolan defends the church's efforts to protect children, and he is a staunch supporter of pope benedict's handling of the abuse crisis. and the pope clearly thinks highly of dolan. he named him to several high profile vatican committees. would dolan himself ever want that top job? it's been speculated the most likely candidate for an american pope is you. >> dolan: you've been talking to my mom. unfortunately, the people that say that, morley, also think the mets are going to win the world series.

so i wouldn't put too much... i wouldn't put too much credibility in... in that one. >> safer: dolan admits that restoring the church's credibility is going to be an enormous challenge. yet he insists that a dramatic reformation of the church is not the answer. >> safer: certain changes may be necessary, and the church seems to be blind to that idea. >> dolan: there's no denying that, morley. there would be a good chunk of people who would want more change. but i still would maintain that there's an equally large group who would say, "oh, my, what attracts us to the catholic faith is its sense of permanence and its sense of consistency and stability. >> safer: why is it that i feel that, in your heart of hearts, there are certain changes you really wish would take place? >> dolan: i think there would be changes in the church. but i don't think they're the ones you have in mind. i don't want to see changes in the church when it comes to celibacy or... or women priests

or our... our clear teaching about the sanctity of human life and the... the unity of marriage between one man and one woman forever. i'd love to see changes in the church in the very area that you're hinting at over and over again-- in the perception of the church as some shrill scold. we need to change that. >> safer: dolan says he wants people to celebrate the beauty, charity and timelessness of the church, and not focus so much on what the church prohibits. >> dolan: instead of being hung up on these headline issues, let's get back to where the church is at her best. >> safer: but the headline issues are where people are living their lives. and an awful lot feel that... that the church is going down the wrong road. >> dolan: yeah. i guess you got two different world views there. >> safer: and you ain't going to change. >> dolan: ( laughs ) i'm in one world, you're in the other.

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