Kansas City Catholics urge the pope to discipline Bishop Finn

By Kerri Stowell And Kasey Babbitt
Fox 4
February 16, 2014

http://fox4kc.com/2014/02/15/kansas-city-catholics-urge-the-pope-to-discipline-bishop-finn/

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — a group of Roman Catholics are taking a rare step. They’re urging the pope to remove a local bishop from his post. They have been writing letters and signing a petition which will be going straight to Pope Francis.

It’s a story which is making headlines again. Bishop Robert Finn was caught in the middle of a sex abuse scandal and placed on court-supervised probation in 2012. Some parishioners, like Liz Donnelly, don’t believe it’s enough.

“I think we’re meant to stand up for what we believe in.  If we don’t speak out, we can’t sit in the pews and grumble,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly, a life-long catholic, wants Bishop Finn removed from his post. She’s one of 13 parishioners, along with a priest, a nun and 113,000 people worldwide writing letters and signing a petition. The documents will be going straight to Pope Francis urging him to make the change.

“The Catholic Church is built on peace and justice principles, yet within the church there’s not justice,” said Donnelly.

Bishop Finn was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of failing to report a priest involved in child pornography.

Donnelly feels so strongly about the bishop’s role in the case. She stopped giving money to the Catholic Church.

“I love my parish and want my parish to thrive and want the people there to have salaries, but I couldn’t in my conscious give money that would go to him,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly described her decision to leave the church as a hard one. She hopes to return if and when Bishop Finn leaves.

“I would hope we can get back to a basic level of just loving and caring for one another, finding a common ground no matter what our differences are,” said Donnelly.

The letters and petition are tied to a case involving Father Shawn Ratigan. He had hundreds of pornographic pictures of young girls on his laptop. Father Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison last year.