Bishop Finn under Investigation by the Vatican (updated)

By Steve Vockrodt
Pitch Weekly
September 29, 2014

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2014/09/29/report-bishop-finn-under-investigation-by-the-vatican


The National Catholic Reporter says a Canadian archbishop traveled to Kansas City to investigate Robert Finn, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

The Kansas City-based news outlet covering Catholicism reports that Ottawa, Ontario, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast paid a visit to Kansas City last week to ask members close to the local diocese about Finn's leadership.

The Pitch has no independent verification of these claims; calls to the local and Ottawa diocese were not immediately returned.

Update, 3:01 p.m.

Jack Smith, a spokesman for the local diocese, e-mailed The Pitch with the following statement, which confirms the visit:

I did just now speak with the bishop who is in Rome on pilgrimage and for ordinations. Bishop Finn was notified of the process in advance by the Apostolic Nuncio. He cooperated with the process and was obligated by the terms of the visitation not to speak of it to anyone, including his senior staff and communications director.

A spokeswoman for the Ottawa diocese seemed to confirm his travel to Kansas City by couching it to NCR as a "private visit."

Finn is in Rome for the ordinations of seminarians there. Finn's time away in Rome seems to make an investigator's visit to Kansas City timely.

Jackson County prosecutors leveled criminal charges against Finn, a first for anyone in the Catholic hierarchy, for his role in deflecting an official investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by former priest Shawn Ratigan. Finn was found guilty in 2012 of a misdemeanor charge while Ratigan received a 50-year prison sentence for his crimes the following year.

The convictions were the most visible among many embarrassments for the local Catholic diocese since Finn took over in 2005. They were also costly to the local diocese, with estimates for legal bills and settlements exceeding $5 million.

We will update with more information as it becomes available.