BishopAccountability.org
	Charge against Kansas City Bishop the Temper of the Times By John L Allen Jr National Catholic Reporter October 15, 2011 http://ncronline.org/news/people/charge-against-kansas-city-bishop-temper-times While Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., may be the first American bishop to be criminally indicted for alleged failure to report child abuse, he's hardly the first Catholic bishop in recent years to run afoul of the criminal justice system. A French bishop, to take one famous incident, was prosecuted, convicted, and given a three-month prison sentence on similar grounds in 2001 (that sentence was suspended). Other bishops have been prosecuted for their own personal misconduct, and still others have faced criminal investigations and charges for alleged mishandling of other sorts of scandals. That last list includes two Italian cardinals, one a former high-ranking Vatican official. Taken together, all this paints a seemingly clear picture. Not long ago, Catholic bishops in Europe and North America enjoyed considerable deference from police, prosecutors, judges and grand juries – sufficient leeway, at least, to make criminal sanctions an unrealistic prospect. Those days, however, seem to be coming to an end.
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