Diocese Denies That Archbishop Covered up Priest Abuse

By Chris Oberholtz
WFSB
April 30, 2015

http://www.wfsb.com/story/28941319/snap-to-release-evidence-of-sex-abuse-cover-up-in-kck-diocese

[with video]

Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted three years ago of failing to report suspected child abuse, has resigned, but some in the Catholic community are still angry.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests say Kansas City, KS, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who was appointed temporary leader of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese after Finn resignation, isn't the right choice.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests maintains that Kansas City, KS, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who was appointed temporary leader of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese after Finn resignation, isn't the right choice.

SNAP members say Naumann is part of a child sex abuse cover-up that happened at the Catholic Archdiocese in KCK. They are calling for systemwide change in the Catholic church.

They held a protest at the Kansas City-St Joseph Diocese after they found out that Finn will preside over the ordinations of seven deacons next month due to a scheduling conflict for his temporary replacement.

Naumann will be leading the ordination ceremony of deacons in the KCK diocese he leads at the same time the May 23 ordinations are scheduled for the Missouri diocese.

SNAP members feel that makes Finn's resignation useless.

"We're very hopeful that Catholics and priests here will stand up and things will change," said Barbara Dorris, outreach director with SNAP.

SNAP members said they have documents from clergy sex abuse victims that allegedly show evidence of a sex abuse cover up in the KCK diocese. The organization claims that Naumann tried to cover up for a priest who abused a child.

"We are saying judge this man by his actions and not his words," Dorris said. "Nothing in Kansas City has changed."

The allegations involving an archdiocese priest were raised in a lawsuit filed 30 years after the fact.

Jack Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, brushed off those accusations on Naumann's behalf.

Smith said Naumann reported the complaints as soon as he heard about them.

"There's no possible way you could claim the archbishop was covering this up when he sent it to the prosecutor, when he alerted parishioners," Smith said. "It's just completely spurious."

In interview on Monday with KCTV5's Brad Stephens, Naumann said his job is to make the Catholic Church a better place and not dwell on the past.

"This is a moment to try to refocus ourselves and not continue to rehash the past except in ways we can learn from it, but how do we go about going forward and doing the mission that Jesus gave us, which is to go and make disciples," Naumann said.

KCTV5's Bonyen Lee and DeAnn Smith contributed to this report.