Catholics in Kansas City area among those seeking discipline for bishop

By Associated Press
News-Leader
February 16, 2014

http://www.news-leader.com/viewart/20140217/NEWS11/302170038/Bishop-Kansas-City

KANSAS CITY — Roman Catholics in the Kansas City area have joined a formal request to Pope Francis to discipline Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

An online petition signed by more than 113,000 people worldwide asking for Finn’s removal also was sent to the Vatican, The Kansas City Star reported.

Finn, the head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, was placed on two years of court-supervised probation after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge.

The case was related to Finn’s handling of complaints against the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a priest who admitted taking lewd photographs of young parishioners. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and 21 years in state prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

“The priest’s crime that Bishop Finn concealed from civil authorities was of great magnitude,” said the Rev. James Connell, a priest and canon lawyer from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, in a letter to the pope. “Thus, the harm done by Bishop Finn also was of great magnitude. Yet Catholic Church authorities have taken no action against Bishop Finn that would provide justice and repair scandal, and this lack of action adds to the ongoing scandal of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.”

The diocese has received a copy of the materials that were sent to the Vatican’s representative in Washington, D.C., for forwarding to the pope, a spokesman for Finn’s office said.

“Bishop Finn has his supporters and his detractors, and people are free to have their own opinion about what happens here,” diocese spokesman Jack Smith said. “The Diocese and Bishop Finn remain focused and committed to the strengthened reporting and training programs which are creating safer environments in our schools and parishes.”

Kansas City resident Liz Donnelly, one of the parishioners who signed the letter, said the case has forced her to stop giving money to the church.

“I feel very sad about not contributing money to my parish because I love the staff and know their salaries and benefits are paid by our tithing, as are many good programs, but I could not in good conscience give money that would partially go to the Bishop who appears so removed from the people,” she wrote.

Connell, who is part of a group of priests and nuns called the Catholic Whistleblowers, initiated the drive to discipline Finn. Sister Jeanne Christensen, formerly the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese’s victims assistance coordinator, also signed the letters.

Connell said canon law requires a “just penalty” for a person who through “culpable negligence” harms someone by committing or omitting his “ecclesiastical power.”