American cardinal says his own mother is 'embarrassed to be Catholic' [View all]

You know the scandals in the Catholic Church are bad when a leading American cardinal says his own mother is ashamed to show her faith in public.

That's what Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.

"You don't think that did me in?" said Dolan, often one of the more cheery American churchmen.

"When my mom says -- she's in assisted living -- she said: I'm not going out for lunch, I'm kind of embarrassed to be Catholic."