Ottawa archbishop dispatched on Vatican investigative mission

By Andrew Duffy
Ottawa Citizen
October 5, 2014

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-archbishop-dispatched-on-vatican-investigative-mission

Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast has been dispatched by the Vatican on an investigative mission to Kansas City to examine the leadership of that city’s embattled bishop.

Prendergast travelled to Missouri late last month to interview priests and other diocesan officials about Bishop Robert Finn and his suitability as head of the Kansas City diocese.

Finn has been under intense pressure to resign his position in the two years since his misdemeanour conviction for failing to report a suspected case of child abuse by a priest. He was sentenced to two years of probation in September 2012.

Court heard that Finn failed to tell authorities that Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer had been found with hundreds of lewd images of young girls, most of them photos taken by the priest in local school yards, playgrounds and at church events. The pictures focused on the girls’ genitals.

But it was six months before Ratigan’s disturbing behaviour was reported to police by church officials acting without Finn’s approval.

Ratigan, who attempted suicide after the discovery, pleaded guilty last year to producing child pornography and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Bishop Finn’s handling of the case has sparked outrage in Kansas City. More than 260,000 people have added their names to an online petition calling for his resignation, and many clergy members have publicly expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership.

Church attendance has declined sharply during the past decade and some Kansas City churches are reportedly struggling to meet higher insurance costs imposed by financial settlements from legal claims.

According to the National Catholic Register, Archbishop Prendergast has been asked by the Vatican to make recommendations about whether Finn should continue in his current position. Finn has led the Kansas City diocese since 2005.

A spokeswoman for the Ottawa diocese said Friday she can’t comment on Prendergast’s visit to Kansas City.

“The archbishop considers it a private visit, so we have no comment,” Sarah Du Broy said in an email.

Prendergast’s three-day visit to Kansas City represents the second time in the past three years that he has been tapped by the Vatican for a sensitive mission.

In early 2011, Prendergast was sent to the Irish archdiocese of Tuam as part of a high-profile delegation that assessed the church’s response to the horrific child sex-abuse scandal in that country.

The initiative followed a series of damning Irish government reports on widespread child abuse by clergy and others associated with the Catholic Church. In one Irish diocese, Cloyne, abuses were still being covered up as late as 2009 — 13 years after the church in Ireland issued guidelines to ensure that sexual abuse cases involving the clergy were reported to authorities.

Prendergast has spoken about the need for more transparency in the Catholic Church, and in 2011 he stood firm against a loud chorus of local Catholics who did not want him to refer the case of Rev. Joe LeClair to the police for investigation.

LeClair, the charismatic pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish, repeatedly denied allegations that he stole from his church to finance a gambling habit.

In January, however, LeClair admitted his guilt to theft and fraud charges and was later sentenced to a year in jail. He’s to be released next month. Prendergast has said LeClair will be welcomed back into the Ottawa diocese as a priest.