Guest Blog: SNAP Update, Push for Justice in the Courts

Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
May 03, 2015

http://hamilton-griffin.com/guest-blog-snap-update-push-for-justice-in-the-courts/

Last week, one Catholic official lost his diocese. This week, another one lost his freedom.

The similarities: Their names rhyme and their choices hurt kids.

The differences: Church officials barely punished one, but secular officials really punished the other.

Number one is Philadelphia’s Msgr. William Lynn. He is behind bars again, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a previous appeals panel’s ruling that released him from prison. The Justices ruled that Lynn, among other offenses, “misrepresented facts to (law enforcement) to thwart their investigation of priests and their crimes.”

Lynn was the first US Catholic official found guilty in criminal court of concealing child sex crimes.

Number two is Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn. In 2012, Finn became the first US bishop to be convicted of child endangerment for withholding evidence and suspicions from the police for months. (By the way, Finn never did turn over hundreds of sexual photos of kids taken by Fr. Shawn Ratigan. Finn’s second-in-command eventually did so, and was yelled at by Finn for having done so.)

Finn is also the first US bishop to resign for helping predators and hurting kids since Cardinal Bernard Law.

Some call Finn’s belated resignation “punishment.” But we doubt that Msgr. Lynn would agree. And we don’t either.

Finn did no jail time, of course.

He still wears a Roman collar. In fact, he still wears the pointy bishop’s hat too. And the fancy ring and robes.

That’s right – he’s still a bishop. He’s just been freed from the mundane chores of running a diocese.

But he still gets the glory roles: later this month, to the chagrin of many, he will ordain the newest priests into the diocese.

That leads many to wonder if Finn will be showing up for graduations, ground-breakings, confirmations, funerals and other functions in Kansas City for years to come. (He’s an apparently healthy 62 years old.)

And when hundreds of US prelates gather next month in St. Louis for their annual meeting, Finn will likely be there. Ditto for bishops’ installations and the papal trip to the east coast this fall.

Lynn, however, is a different matter. Not different in terms of how the Catholic system treats him. But radically different in terms of how the justice system treats him.

He won’t be presiding over, or even attending, church functions. No one will be kissing his ring or carrying his train. He will be in jail.

And he will be, as he was before, “Exhibit A” for what can happen when a cleric put his career ahead of children’s safety.

Putting it another way, punishment IS prevention. Discipline is deterrence.

This is especially true in the Catholic Church, where nearly every other prevention measure – except punishing the hierarchy – has failed. Despite decades of scandals, lawsuits, settlements, exposes, prosecutions, and defections, bishops keep protecting predators and endangering kids.

So something more and different must be done. Punishing wrongdoers must happen, instead of promoting wrongdoers.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for justice in the church. Just be grateful for – and keep pushing for – justice in the courts.