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	Finn Should Be Finn Ished! By Vinnie Nauheimer Voice from the Desert October 16, 2011 http://reform-network.net/ This essay on the recently indicted Roman Catholic bishop of Kansas City, Robert Finn, was sent to me by the author and is publ;ished here with his permission. * * * Once again with great solemnity, a bishop, Finn of Kansas City, has stood at the pulpit and read from the voluminous sacred text written in the "Vatican Book of Excuses." The church, like most suffering from an addiction, has thousands of excuses for pandering to despicable human beings wearing collars who ravage children for nothing more than their own pleasure. The trigger for opening the Book of Excuses is getting caught: allowing the indefensible (the sexual abuse of children) to continue. Bishop Finn has gotten caught allowing the indefensible to continue. A grand jury has turned in the indictment and so we shine the current spotlight on him. Just because you put a silk tutu on a slug does not mean you have a prima ballerina. The same is true of bishops. Just because you put gold vestments on a man, anoint him with oil and recite a few well chosen words doesn't mean you have either a holy man or a man who works for the best interests of Christianity. All Catholics have been taught to believe that bishops are special men who are spiritual descendants of the apostles. However, our experience tells us that what we've been taught to believe can't possibly be reconciled with the actions we've seen. Jesus was anything but a hypocrite. After those who would abuse children, his harshest words in the Gospels were for hypocrites. He says this about hypocrites: Matt: 15:7-9: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophecy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, But their heart is far from me; Matthew 23: 25-28: Woe to you, you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed graves, which appear beautiful on the outside, but are full of death and corruption. In the same way, you outwardly appear righteous, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness… Is there anything in Bishop Finn's actions concerning Fr. Ratigan that would give him the appearance of being a hypocrite? Perhaps the following? 1. In 2002 before the world, Pope John Paul II declared: there can be no place in the priesthood for anyone who would abuse a child. 2. From the 2005 Preamble of the Dallas Charter for the protection of children agreed to by the bishops of the United States and revised in 2011: "We make our own the words of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II: that the sexual abuse of young people is "by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God" (Address to the Cardinals of the United States and Conference Officers, April 23, 2002)." 3. The Kansas City Star article dated October 6, 2011 stated: "A $10 million settlement was reached in 2008 that included 19 nonmonetary commitments, such as establishing victims' advocacy programs, immediately reporting any abuse or suspicion of abuse to law enforcement authorities, and defrocking several priests who had been accused of abuse." 4. In 2008 while in Australia at the World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI uttered these words: "These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation… "I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice." In addition to the charge of breaking civil law, we have a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church who has seemingly disobeyed the direct commands of two popes. Acted contrary to the pledge of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's, Dallas Charter and his own pledge to survivors as part of a legal settlement to immediately report any abuse or suspicions of abuse to law enforcement officials. What can be said about a man that behaves in this manner? Are these suitable credentials for any man we would want to call bishop? Behavior like this makes a laughing stock out of the word bishop both within the church and without the church. Is this a follower of Jesus or one of the hypocrites that Jesus warned us about? Bishops take a vow of obedience to the Pope; they swear fealty to Christ and his teachings, and are supposed to be men of their word. Timothy tells us in, 1Timothy 3: 1-5, that these are the attributes of a good bishop: "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" If a man cannot put an immediate end to the sick, vile and degenerate behavior of priests like Ratigan, how can we expect him to take care of the church of God? We can't! If we can't hold a bishop blameless, how can we expect him to take care of the church of God? We can't! If a bishop refuses to listen to the words of two successive Vicars of Christ on earth, can we account him blameless? No! If a bishop can't adhere to the Dallas Charter promulgated by fellow bishops, and if he can't abide by his own legal promise to the courts, how in God's name can we expect him to take care of God's church? The answer is too obvious! As bad as the above transgressions may be, there is one worse: a total absence of humanity! For a long time, many have tried without success to understand how and why any man worthy of the name bishop would not do their utmost to protect the most vulnerable of our treasures, children, from sexual predation. There has to be a name for the cold-hearted, amoral, lack of humanity that will not put an immediate stop to the violation of children upon discovering it. Until a better name is found, we will have to use the only name we know that sums up the worldwide group of men who have the dubious distinction of continuously turning their backs on the rape, sodomization, molestation and violation of children: the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.
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