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The shocking indictment of Robert Finn, Bishop of Kansas City --Why did a bishop choose church over children?
Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 06:46 AM
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Will Catholic church leaders ever learn that child abuse is a vile crime?
The latest episode is where the Bishop Robert Finn the Irish American conservative bishop of Kansas City was indicted for covering up a pedophile priest in his diocese
This is no ancient case, but rather one that happened just a few months ago where a sexual predator was allowed free rein by Bishop Robert Finn to prey on young children.
A fellow priest first reported the allegations to Finn and his staff.
They ignored it.
Now Finn has rightfully been indicted and must surely resign.
This all comes back to a culture of complicity in the church.
Some leaders have circled the wagons and chosen the institution over the people.
It is a massive mistake.
And they continue to cover up.
The Finn case is an obvious example.
Three years ago he paid out millions to settle cases and swore it would never happen again.
Until it did.
Finn was indicted by a county grand jury on the charge of failing to report a priest who he suspected to be a pedophile.
This is the first indictment of a Catholic bishop in the United States over the past 25 years, when sexual abuse scandals within the church emerged.
Finn has been accused of covering up sexual abuse in the church as recently as last year.
Ten years ago the United States Catholic bishops passed a charter pledging to report abusers to the authorities.
The priest Finn protected, Rev. Shawn Ratigan, had been accused of taking inappropriate photographs of young girls.
Finn has admitted that he knew that these photos existed last December, however, he did not turn the priest in question in to the authorities until May.
In May, Ratigan, the priest in question, was arrested. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury on the charges of possessing indecent photographs of young girls. The most recent photographs were taken at an Easter egg hunt last spring.
Ratigan attended children’s birthday parties, spent weekends in the homes of parish families, hosted the Easter egg hunt, and presided at a girl’s First Holy Communion – all with Finn’s permission.
During the period from December to May, Finn and the diocese had no reason to suspect Ratigan of being involved in child abuse.
** http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/us/kansas-city-bishop-indicted-in-reporting-of-abuse-by-priest.html?emc=na&pagewanted=print
According to the New York Times the indictment said, “previous knowledge of concerns regarding Father Ratigan and children; the discovery of hundreds of photographs of children on Father Ratigan’s laptop, including a child’s naked vagina, upskirt images and other images focused on the crotch; and violations of restrictions placed on Father Ratigan.”
Jackson County prosecutor, Jean Peters-Bakers said Finn and the diocese had “reasonable cause" to suspect a child had been abused.
*** http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44907461/ns/today-today_news/t/kc-bishop-charged-not-alerting-police-child-porn/#.TpihiZuXu7s
Speaking to AP, Baker said that the misdemeanor classification "should not diminish the seriousness of the charge. Now that the grand jury investigation has resulted in this indictment, my office will pursue this case vigorously because it is about protecting children. I want to ensure there are no future failures to report resulting in other unsuspecting victims."
The bishop and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph have been charged with one count each, a misdemeanor.
Finn appeared in court on Friday at 1 p.m. The bishop pleaded not guilty, as did lawyers for the diocese.
A statement released by the bishop said “We will meet these announcements with a steady resolve and a vigorous defense.”
He added that the diocese would give their “complete cooperation” to the authorities.
Finn said that since the scandal became public he and the diocese commissioned a report to look into the case. He also added that they had been reinforcing procedures for handling allegations of abuse.
His diocese has become polarized over this case and there have been widespread calls for him to resign.
His parishioners have started a Facebook page called “Bishop Finn Must Go”. They have also circulated a petition.
Just three years ago, Finn settled 47 lawsuits and paid out $10 million for sexual abuse cases. He also agreed on a long list of preventative measures. Among these was the fact that suspects would be reported immediately to the authorities.
The indictment against Finn was announced on Friday. It had been under seal since October 6 as the bishop had been out of the country.
See more: Will Catholic church leaders ever learn that child abuse is a vile crime?The latest episode is where the Bishop Robert Finn the Irish American conservative bishop of Kansas City was indicted for covering up a pedophile priest in his dioceseThis is no ancient case, but rather one that happened just a few months ago where a sexual predator was allowed free rein by Bishop Robert Finn to prey on young childrenA fellow priest first reported the allegations to Finn and his staffThey ignored it
70 Comments
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jacersagain | Oct 24, 2011, 07:14 PM EDT
eiriamach – thank you for informing me and other (bored?) readers that religious people outside the RCC church have systemic processes in place to stop child abuse within their ranks from becoming public knowledge. We all know it doesn’t stop it. That kind of cover-up worked very well for the Irish Protestant Church’s Bethany Home children in Dublin, didn’t it? ... at least it did until the Bethany survivors of child abuse saw how much money the survivors of Catholic priest abuse were/are getting in compensation. Then they screamed blue murder as to why the Irish Government did not include their cases against their Protestant abusers; they still do today. Their cases should be opened up, listened to and addressed. It is impossible to mention the abuse by Protestant UK-leaning Unionist people, their politicians, their clergymen and their friends who abused orphan children in Nth Ireland, allegedly inviting Lord Mountbatten of the UK’s royal family on at least one occasion to participate in it with them, without being accused of being anti-Protestant, which I am not, since I aspire to be a Christian first. Facts lie in the experiences of those who suffered child abuse and in the record of IrishCentral’s frequency of bad-light anti-Catholic articles. Sin sin (that’s Irish language there btw, which eiriamach knows well; for those who might not know what sin sin means, it is pronounced shin shin in Irish, it means “that’s that”, meaning factual, not what you thought it might be or twist around to mean). I’ll leave the last word between us on this topic to you eiriamch... after all, I am an Irish gentleman. Agus sin sin.
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eiriamach | Oct 24, 2011, 03:46 AM EDT
Jacers, face facts: long ago other Christian denominations put safeguards in place to detect abusers early and to make it difficult for church officials to cover up for them. Reports and suspicions of abuse go first to lay leadership, not to pastors or bishops. Lay committees "vet" their priests and ministers with thorough investigations, so bishops cannot simply transfer abusers to begin anew elsewhere. You're wrong that other denominations "cover it up so well that Irish Central and many others do not notice." Lay leaders of other Christian denominations are legally responsible and even financially liable for violations of law, so they have strong incentives for complying with it. The Roman Catholic Church-- "the Church is not a democracy" Roman Catholic Church-- refuses to allow laity any measure of oversight, and when it has set up lay committees, bishops have lied to them and withheld information from them. That happened in Kansas City, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. The sham of lay committees to "advise" bishops has generated fury. Committees need executive (decision-making) power to make any difference at all. RCC is not the Boy Scouts. It has used power and money to keep itself immune from the laws of the state, as Enda Kenny has pointed out. Monitoring by the press, then, is essential, and it will continue until there is structural reform to make abuse unlikely to continue under the protection of bishops.
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jacersagain | Oct 23, 2011, 06:41 PM EDT
eiriamach – sorry but I disagree with both of yr last posts. It is factually correct to state that ICentral’s short history shows it to be anti-Catholic. There are many other IC posters who can aver to that. Only once did I see an article, by Niall O’Dowd, that tried to counter this fact and I remember at the time of reading it thinking “he’s been shamed into writing something positive about the Church” because NO’D’s article appeared after many thunderous accusations by other posters about Irish Central’s frequency of anti-Catholic articles. Irish Central has failed to show or highlight that child abuse is not limited to abusers within the RCC’s priesthood. The second point I’d make about yr posts is that I have never advocated suppression of news. I did call for more balanced reporting on the issue of child abuse and of those who cover it up. Indeed, one could speculate that other churches cover it up so well that Irish Central and many others do not notice, or studiously choose to ignore, this horrible crime by others outside of the RCC. I’d turn an intense spotlight on that. Please stop twisting my posts out of context which appear to be a poor attempt by you to divert attention away from non-Catholic Church child abusers.
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eiriamach | Oct 23, 2011, 12:56 PM EDT
Jacers, You cannot advocate suppression of the news without placing yourself in the company of the most powerful 20th century dictators. Do I need to name them? I thought not. The Church has not acted to make abuse less likely in the future or even to reveal the truth about past abuse. Only the spotlight that the press turns on the continuing revelations is likely to do that.
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eiriamach | Oct 23, 2011, 12:50 PM EDT
Jacers, I believe that you are quite wrong in seeing IC as anti-Catholic. Those who live in denial about the extent and the harm done by priests' and nuns' abuse of children, along with those who fear any change in church structure that would make it easier to prosecute abusers, seem to lash out with charges of "anti-Catholic" whenever IC simply reports news about child abuse in the Church (there's plenty of that news!). There's a strange kind of self-imposed blindness in that attitude. Similar to it is the lashing out against "the left" that you see here, for example, on Roberts' next blog, "Let's electrocute all Irish who come to the US illegally." Posters seem to flock to IC for self-affirmation, to find others who think just as they do, and when they find that not everyone does think like them, they irrationally indulge in bitter name calling and accusations! The political scene in the US has shifted in recent years dramatically to the right. Many posters seem to think that the GOP candidates for President are somehow in the center; nothing could be further from the truth of history, if the posters would only bother to consult it. Even Mitt Romney in his current persona is not in any sense a "moderate." And the whole crew of them is dangerously-- dangerously!-- to the extreme far- right politically. The same might be said of those who are ready to scream "anti-Catholic" at anyone who simply reports facts-- facts!-- about the continuing revelations of sexual abuse in RC. They do not seem to realize how far to the right they've drifted.
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jacersagain | Oct 21, 2011, 06:52 PM EDT
(...more) Indeed, it is clear that the Catholic Church is targeted by ICentral in a disproportionate way to all others who have engaged in child abuse, as I pointed out before. I would not expect ICentral to gang-lead against child abuse - it is not their obligation or raison d’être - but if ICentral continue to write on child abuse, I would like to see more balanced articles on the subject highlighting its presence in all strata of society, and opening discussion how we as citizens would like to see it addressed for eradication. >> I’m sorry now that on Oct 17, 04.50pm I took marymoore (Oct 15, 01.49pm) to task on poorfraeding, cmomas and spenillg. All the pron fans and eivl cursing posters might adopt the tactic... Slán go fóill.
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jacersagain | Oct 21, 2011, 06:48 PM EDT
eiriamach, I agree that the story of Bishop Finn is news. I have not commented on the story itself because I’d rather wait to see how the case pans out first. I was prompted by katieherk’s post (Oct 15, 3.22pm), and, agreeing with her comments, only pointed out the poor journalism of Roberts (and Deignan and O’Doherty) whose badly written articles often target the Catholic Church, mainly on the child abuse issue but also on abortion and “LGBT’ism”, unlike quality writers on ICentral like Danny Boy, John Spain, Kerry Lyons, Susan Byron and the unique Cormac MacConnell who don’t stoop to this level of gutter press writing. (More...)
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eiriamach | Oct 19, 2011, 08:22 PM EDT
My reply did not go through, so I'll try again without the hot words like 'pron' spelled correctly. Jacers, I use the word "fallacious" simply to denote a mistake in reasoning, as in "informal fallacy of logic," not to suggest intentional deceit. I don't agree that IC has any obligation to report the whole gamut of sexual abuse of children. The case of Finn is news worthy because it's a breakthrough-- the first indictment of a bishop for covering up for a priest. I hope, like you, eventually to see a full treatment of the many types of sexual abuse of children, especially if the writer has good ideas about how to prosecute abusers. It has been a difficult and painful area for the law in both our countries. As for 'pron' on IC, yes it's there, but censorship would be worse. Hey, if we adopted your don't-worry-about-spelling rule, we could get anything past the IC filters!
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jacersagain | Oct 19, 2011, 05:30 PM EDT
(...more for eiriamach and all) Incidentally, I agree with the main thrust of yr post of today at 04.07am; it IS ridiculous to suggest that the drug-laden liberal ‘60s and ‘70s or Vatican II are excuses for clerical abuse of children since the ‘60s (although I personally think Vatican II was a factor, it certainly is not an excuse). The abuse always happened throughout history behind closed doors, just as it did and continues in society at large. The pervasiveness of pronography - on shop shelves, TV and the internet today, even so-called ‘soft’ pron in everyday newspapers lying around family homes (there’s no such thing as ‘soft’ pron: pron is pron) does not help protect today’s vulnerable children or those of the future. I think Irish Central is guilty of ‘soft’ pron, in, for example, presenting lassivious photos of its favourite Indy Car racer, Dani whatsername and others. The treatment of women and children has got to be improved by all, including Press and other journalist media fora that claim so much credit for exposing what they themselves advertently or inadvertently, by chance or by choice, help to proliferate. Somebody once said to me: "Treat every woman you meet as if your were meeting the Mother of Christ; treat every child as you would meeting a 12-yr old Christ and treat every man as if you were meeting Christ himself". I’m not very good at that advice but I try. I can’t walk down the street, seeing a mother pushing a pram with a baby inside, without thinking of Mother Mary and her Son; similarly when I see a dad teaching his son how to make or do something, I think of Joseph and Jesus together in Joseph's carpentry workshop, having a laugh together at Jesus' childish efforts & mistakes at woodwork.
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jacersagain | Oct 19, 2011, 04:56 PM EDT
(...more) My late wife was a professional social worker (here in Ireland) who specialised with children. Many of her clients were abused by their fathers, brothers, uncles and cousins and their friends. I am therefore much aware of the harm caused to abused children in our greater, wider society. It is this that I was emphasising in making my posts, and in calling on ICentral, that, if they want to highlight child abuse, they should direct a campaign against ALL child abuse crime and not limit their clearly-biased attention to RCC clerics’ crimes. So, eiriamach, I’d appreciate it if you would refrain from distorting my posts as you did yesterday at 03.35pm (which I think you sometimes do on other posters) in suggesting that my points - against (i) lop-sided anti-RCC Irish Central articles (ii) emphasising the presence, even systemic, endemic incidences of child-abuse in society at large which society and the Press media do not highlight enough and (iii) calling for IC to target child abuse as a ‘whole society’ problem - were “irrelevant”. At least you wrote ‘Yes’ to my main points and I thank you for that. (...more)
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jacersagain | Oct 19, 2011, 04:52 PM EDT
@ eiriamach - amen to yr last post, right on I say. However, I’m very disappointed to see you distort my posts of Oct 17. On one hand you called them fallacious (deceptive, untrue); on the other hand you agreed with my two main points - but then, by way of your choice of examples, you proceeded to introduce a slant to my posts that I never alluded to. My posts highlighted the lop-sided attention given by ICentral columnists in almost exclusively targeting the sins of clerics within the RCC while ignoring the greater incidence of child abuse in our own communities and in other religious institutions. I have never ever once belittled child abuse by RC clerics or its cover-up. In fact, a couple of years ago under another ICentral RCC child-abuse article, I wrote that clerics should face the full rigour of the civil law in the same way as non-religious do. I also said that, upon release from prison, child-abusing priests should be incarcerated by Church authorities in an isolated monastery, for the rest of their lives, to reflect on the harm they caused to children who would live with the memory of their abuse for the rest of their own lives. I have not changed my mind on that to this day. (More...)
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eiriamach | Oct 19, 2011, 03:50 PM EDT
From today's NY Times, an update to this story, with words from a parishioner of Fr. Ratigan's church: "Not everyone made the trip to St. Patrick’s on Sunday. At breakfast, Liz Miquelon and her husband, Brad, asked each other the same question they’ve asked since the scandal broke months ago: would today be the day they returned to church? They had not attended since they pulled their daughter from St. Patrick’s School, terrified that she might be among the unidentified children in the photos.
And again the answer was no, with concern for their 5-year-old daughter’s safety overriding fears that Ms. Miquelon was disconnecting from her religion. But Ms. Miquelon, a lifelong Catholic who says she has lost faith in church leaders but not God, tearfully expressed the hope, still tentative, that the criminal charges might usher in the changes needed for her eventual return.
'I want this to be a revolutionary change in the Catholic Church, so that no one will ever not report again,' she said." Amen to her words.
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eiriamach | Oct 19, 2011, 04:57 AM EDT
Yes, JuneAnnette, the evidence against the bishops piles up and clearly shows a systemic problem. The "privilege" of pedophilia is built into the system! It will continue as long as the Church rejects democratic processes and the oversight of the laity. Canon law, which demands equal protection for the priest's "good name" and the victim's right to justice, in effect requires the bishops to protect the accused priest from the press and thus from the law of the land. It is not possible to allow a case to go to trial in criminal court without raising questions about the priest's "reputation." This practice makes a mockery of the right of victims to justice, and it makes a mockery of the sovereignty of civil law in the state. To maintain this independence from the law, Catholics insist that our constitutions protect the bishops' "religious freedom." There's a case right now before the US Supreme Court, not child abuse but employment law, against the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church claims its right to discriminate against the handicapped in the name of freedom of religion, just as the Catholic Church claims the right to deal secretly with cases of child abuse in the name of religious freedom. I fear that the Court will allow "religious freedom" to over-ride laws against discrimination. Even more worrisome, however, is the power of Catholic prelates to ignore criminal law and victims' rights along with it. The Church Defenders writing below support this absolute power, perhaps unwittingly, but none the less support it.
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eiriamach | Oct 19, 2011, 04:07 AM EDT
And then there is the ever-popular excuse of the 1960s counter-culture, the sexual revolution cheered on by hippie psychologists, and Vatican II, the Council that opened a chink in the Church's medieval armor and let the modern world, with all its sins and sicknesses and demons, flow in! Relativism--ethical relativism-- the claim that we must judge the sins of the priests against the background of the sins of a world turned to secular ways and away from God: Blame the crimes of priests on the social environment that made pedophilia look like water to a fish; don't blame it on the pedophiles. Isn't it Pope Benedict XVI who is forever carping about the "relativism" of those who think that the Church should come to terms with the 21st century world, understand the 'signs of the times,' and begin to deal with all human beings as equally the sons and daughters of God? Ah, I see, these reformers are the relativists because they dare to speak of a "world" in need of transformation by real-life Christians, but when the Church's criminals ask to be excused because there was a "sexual revolution" going on at the time, well that's just a different way of adhering to the unchanging and eternal law of God that forbids the violation of a child. Rank hypocrisy!
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