By Judy L. Thomas
Kansas City Star
August 5, 2011
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/05/3060018/disunity-isnt-new-to-finn-and.html
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Ever since child pornography charges were filed against a priest in his diocese, Bishop Robert Finn has been under fire.
Street protesters called for his resignation. A “Bishop Finn Must Go” Facebook page has more than 280 supporters. A campaign urges upset Catholics to write to a Vatican official.
But anger against Finn isn’t new. It began the moment he became head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph six years ago, forcing changes and ushering in much more conservative practices.
In fact, some of his supporters say his longtime enemies are using the sex-abuse scandal only as a new excuse to oppose him.
“I think that the call for the bishop’s resignation is part of the ongoing fight between conservatism and liberalism within the Catholic Church,” said Mike Murtha, a member of St. Regis Catholic Church.
Sally Radmacher, a retired research psychologist who picketed against Finn in June, said the recent priest controversy is merely the final straw.
“I’ll put it this way,” Radmacher said. “I don’t think you’re going to find any moderate or progressive Catholics who are supporting the bishop. Progressive Catholics like myself are very distressed with what’s going on in the church right now.”
The focus has been on Finn since the Rev. Shawn Ratigan was charged in May with three counts of possessing child pornography. After Ratigan’s arrest, it was revealed that diocesan officials had been warned more than a year earlier about Ratigan’s disturbing interactions with children but took no immediate action.
“The anger at Bishop Finn didn’t start with Ratigan,” Radmacher said. “But Ratigan just capped it. This is the final disappointment.”
Finn would not comment for this story, but diocesan spokeswoman Rebecca Summers declined to speculate about motives behind calls for his resignation.
“The question of whether some have used the case of Shawn Ratigan unfairly is clearly a matter of speculation and has not been — and is not — the primary concern of the diocese,” Summers said.
“Our primary concerns — from day one — have been to cooperate in the investigation into the actions of Shawn Ratigan and to ensure that our policies and procedures are as ironclad as possible...
“Whether people approve or disapprove of Bishop Finn — on topics ranging from the right of people to migrate or the types of religious education offered in the diocese — does not serve those purposes.”
Reversing reforms
Finn’s critics say that since becoming bishop, he has been dismantling the revolutionary reforms implemented by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, when Pope John XXIII said it was time to bring the Roman Catholic Church into the modern era.
Vatican II empowered laypersons, allowing them to go from being spectators to participants. It modernized the liturgy, let churchgoers celebrate Mass in their own language and encouraged the church to open dialogue with and respect other religions.
Many progressive Catholics think the current pope, Benedict XVI, and his predecessor, John Paul II, stymied the Vatican II reforms by implementing conservative policies and appointing more conservative-leaning bishops, such as Finn.
On Finn’s first anniversary as bishop, the Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter published a lengthy cover story called “Extreme makeover: the diocese” that outlined the changes Finn had put in place and the frustration they had created.
As soon as he became bishop, Finn dismissed the diocesan chancellor, a layperson, replacing him with a priest. He shut down the diocese’s nationally recognized lay formation programs and slashed the budgets of the Center for Pastoral Life and Ministry, which trained laypersons for leadership. He demanded that the diocesan newspaper stop running columns by a theologian who was often at odds with the Vatican.
“It was like he wanted to revert back to the 1950s,” Radmacher said, removing power from the laity and turning churchgoers back into observers.
“At the cathedral, before Bishop Finn came, the choir sat down with the people instead of having them up in a loft, because they wanted the people to sing,” she said. “As soon as Finn came, they had to move the choir back up in the choir loft, where they’re hidden.”
Finn’s supporters, however, see the changes Finn has made in a different light. They say his actions show that he has a spiritual backbone and that he has reaffirmed their Catholic identity by bringing back some of the church’s rich traditions.
“In a lot of the churches, you see where things are more laid back,” Murtha said. “Bishop Finn, and a lot of priests who believe in him, have said that they’re trying to make it a little more sacred and a little bit more spiritual and not as open and laid back as some people want.”
Rebecca Ann Pawlowski, choir director at Old St. Patrick Catholic Church, said Finn is being unjustly criticized.
“It’s like the more liberal parishes are the ones that are attacking Bishop Finn and saying they never wanted him to begin with,” said Pawlowski, communications coordinator for Cross of the Crosier, which held a procession and rally in June to show support for Finn.
“There’s so much misunderstanding, and people have taken advantage of the case. They’re like, ‘Oh, great. Now we can do something. Let’s get active.’?”
Tom Fox, editor of the National Catholic Reporter, said the sex abuse issue has brought dissatisfaction with Finn to the forefront.
“My sense is that Finn has been conservative, and many people don’t like that,” Fox said. Even so, he said, Catholics generally tend to be passive and don’t try to rock the boat.
But with sex abuse now in the mix, he said, a larger swath of Catholics is watching.
“More people are upset than ever before, and there are more people calling for his resignation than ever before,” Fox said.
Critics’ campaign
Those calls have come in several forms.
Some churches have distributed the address of the Papal Nuncio, the pope’s representative in the United States, so Catholics can write and express their concerns.
That campaign may become more complicated, however, because Archbishop Pietro Nambi died last week at 73 after developing complications from lung surgery.
Nambi had in 2008 helped arrange a meeting between priest sexual abuse victims and Pope Benedict XVI.
But unless there’s a massive campaign, writing to the Papal Nuncio probably wouldn’t have much impact anyway, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
“If the Nuncio gets a hundred letters, they’ll go into the circular file,” Reese said. “If he gets 10,000 letters, they’re going to start asking what’s going on out there.”
But he added: “I’ve known of dioceses where 80 percent of the priests have complained and nothing happened.”
The Kansas City controversies are affecting a fundraising campaign in the diocese, however.
On Monday, a story in the National Catholic Reporter quoted the diocese as saying it was delaying a capital campaign “in light of the current challenge.”
The diocese made the announcement in a letter to priests. According to the newspaper, the letter said that the diocese had asked the priests whether the fundraising should continue since the Ratigan case “came to the forefront of our attention” and that 75 percent of the priests who responded recommended a delay.
A survey also has been circulated by email and on a website by a local Catholic, who says preliminary results show almost three-fourths of the nearly 500 responding strongly disagreed that Ratigan’s case had been appropriately handled by Finn and the diocese.
And 71 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that they would “give more careful thought and consideration to stewardship as it relates to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.”
Jeff Weis acknowledged that his survey was unscientific but said he was surprised at the magnitude of responses — including those who added comments.
“There are hundreds of them,” he said.
“A lot of the frustration is, ‘We’ve seen this before. Why is it happening again? Where is the leadership?’ Personally, I am deeply embarrassed because as a faith community, we’re showing that we have not learned from our mistakes and improved.”
Weis, who said he was “born and raised Catholic,” started circulating the survey June 15.
Despite calls for Finn’s ouster, few, if any, Vatican analysts think the bishop will step down.
“The pope has to accept a resignation in order for a bishop to leave, and the Vatican has been very reluctant to have people resign,” said Reese, author of “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.”
The Vatican would rather put up with a controversial bishop “than start giving the appearance that as long as you get a group of people picketing outside the chancery, we’ll pull the guy out,” he said.
Patty Rotert, a member of St. Peter’s Catholic Church who picketed against Finn in June, said she hoped the Vatican would listen.
Her concern is sex abuse, not Finn’s conservative leanings, she said.
Finn knew Ratigan presented a potential problem, “and he left him in there for six months and kids were in harm’s way because of his lack of action,” Rotert said. “I just can’t get past that.”
But Murtha, a Finn supporter, said the real battle isn’t about sex abuse.
“I think the bishop made a mistake and he owned up to it, but I think people have used sensationalism to keep furthering their case,” Murtha said. “There’s a lot more playing into this than just the case of abuse. He’s been treated unfairly ever since he’s been here in Kansas City because he is a conservative bishop.”
To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send email to jthomas@kcstar.com.
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