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Morning News

Rev. Campbell: 'Father and Son Need to be Reunited'

Aired April 7, 2000 - 10:05 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: For months now, the National Council of Churches has been actively working to reunite Elian with his father. Reverend Joan Brown Campbell is a former general -- she's a former general secretary of the organization, and she joins us now. She is live from just outside of Buffalo, New York.

Reverend Brown -- Reverend Campbell, thank you for joining us this morning.

JOAN BROWN CAMPBELL, FMR. GEN. SECY., NAT'L COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: Thank you. Good to be with you.

KAGAN: What is your feeling on how the situation has elevated to this point?

CAMPBELL: Well, I think it's -- it really is a tragic situation because we have a little boy's future at stake. I think it's not surprising that it has become tense. I think all along the predictions were that this is what would happen. But I think the Justice Department and INS now have a kind of determination that the law has to be fulfilled and that the custody will be handed over, as it should be, to the father.

KAGAN: Can you explain to us how your organization, the National Council of Churches, became involved in the first place?

CAMPBELL: The National Council of Churches has a 60-year relationship to the churches in Cuba, and we became involved when the Council of Churches in Cuba asked the National Council of Churches in the U.S. if we would agree to assist them in returning Elian to his father. That was right after Thanksgiving, we thought it would all be accomplished by Christmas.

KAGAN: And that it would be ancient history, we wouldn't be talking about it right now.

CAMPBELL: It's almost Easter and we're still not there.

KAGAN: Now you went to Cuba, you visited Juan Gonzalez's family yourself personally. Did you go with a preconceived idea that you wanted these two reunited, or did you go with an open mind?

CAMPBELL: We went very much wanting to meet the family, wanting to talk to the church leaders, who had asked us if we would enter into this. And I became convinced when I met the family. I was also very concerned that the Miami family had been getting a great deal of exposure and the American people had seen the Miami family, but had not really had any exposure at all to the family in Cuba.

So it seemed to us extremely important that we go down there and meet with those family members. And it's a very, very strong and loving family: four grandparents, a great grandmother, Juan Miguel as we have seen, with his wife and baby; a very, very strong extended family.

And I think, maybe for me, the decisive moment was when Juan Miguel's mother-in-law, that is the mother of Elizabeth, said it was terrible for her. She had lost her only child, and now, perhaps her grandchild, and that her real dream was that Juan Miguel would be the father and be able to be the father to her only grandson, and that's a strong endorsement.

KAGAN: Quickly, Reverend Campbell, what do you say to the people who are concerned that this child is not going back to his father but going back to a life that would be controlled by Fidel Castro and the state?

CAMPBELL: I think that he is going back to his father. He's a young child and what we've always said is: Father and son need to be reunited, that's the primary concern that we have, and I think it's the primary bond of family that gives a child a good future.

KAGAN: Reverend Joan Brown Campbell, with the National Council of Churches, thank you for your time this morning ma'am.

CAMPBELL: Thank you.

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