MISSOURI
KCTV
[with video]
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager
deann.smith@kctv5.com
By Heather Staggers, Reporter
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
He is one of the most controversial priests in the history of the Kansas City Catholic Church, and one group is upset that he has quietly moved into a neighborhood that’s popular with families.
Father Michael Tierney is no longer an active priest, but he has not been defrocked by the Vatican despite the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph paying money to settle sex abuse claims involving Tierney.
Members of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests put fliers on the doors of those living near Tierney’s home near Oak Street and East 64th Terrace. They said that residents have a right to know about the predator living among their midst.
“If a predator priest is so dangerous that a bishop won’t let him work in a parish then he is too dangerous to live among families who don’t know what he’s done,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy.
The diocese settled with 32 sex abuse victims for abuse suffered at the hands of 14 priests including Tierney. Four child sex abuse lawsuits against him have been settled, and he has long been subject of SNAP’s ire with the Catholic Church. Then Bishop Robert Finn apparently first learned of the allegations against Tierney in 2008 but apparently didn’t remove him over “credible reports” of abuse until June 2011. The allegations dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.
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