Editorial: The pope finally gets around to Kansas City's bishop

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 22, 2015

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-the-pope-finally-gets-around-to-kansas-city-s/article_98cf423e-7d3e-564d-8a45-a4a2bf9c79b7.html

FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2011 file photo, Bishop Robert Finn, of Kansas City, Mo., leaves a meeting at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall assembly in Baltimore. Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Finn who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected priestly child abuser, answering demands of victims to crackdown on bishops who covered up for pedophiles.

Until 2005, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was regarded as far more ecclesiastically moderate than the Archdiocese of St. Louis. That changed abruptly in 2005 when Robert W. Finn of St. Louis took over as bishop in Kansas City.

Bishop Finn, who grew up in Overland and was educated in archdiocesan seminaries, was a protege of then-St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and a member of the ultra-conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. He immediately began to make church practices in Kansas City more closely resemble those in St. Louis.

This was immensely satisfying to conservative Catholics in Kansas City, who were uncomfortable with the role of laymen and — especially nuns and laywomen — in diocesan affairs. Bishop Finn was old school, which was entirely his right. Up to a point.

In 2010, he took it upon himself to impose his episcopal prerogatives in a civil matter. In May that year, a parish school administrator reported teachers had become uncomfortable with Father Shawn Ratigan, the pastor of their parish. In December of that year, a computer technician found lewd photos of young girls on Father Ratigan’s computer.

The next month, Bishop Finn sent Ratigan to Pennsylvania for evaluation, and then gave him an assignment where he was supposed to avoid children. He didn’t. In March 2011, Monsignor Robert Murphy, the bishop’s top administrator, reported the matter to law enforcement. He would later testify that Bishop Finn seemed to be angry that he’d reported it. Ratigan is serving 50 years in a federal prison after pleading guilty on five child porn charges.

In 2012, Bishop Finn was convicted in Jackson County Circuit Court of failing to report suspected abuse. He was sentenced to two years’ probation. He became the highest ranking church official to be convicted in a cover-up of child abuse.

A 2,000-year-old church moves more deliberately. Not until Tuesday was it announced that Pope Francis had accepted Bishop Finn’s resignation.

Whether a bishop is conservative or liberal is a church issue. For that matter, so is the pope’s decision to leave a bishop with a criminal conviction in his job after pledging “zero tolerance” for child abuse. Perhaps a 2,000-year-old church doesn’t need to worry about public confidence. As Francis said about another matter, who are we to judge?

But the lesson is worth repeating: Child abuse is a criminal matter. For someone in a position of authority to fail to report it is also a crime. No exceptions.