KANSAS CITY (MO)
Seattle PI
By BILL DRAPER, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bishop Robert Finn, who led the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri for nearly 10 years, resigned Tuesday, almost three years after he was convicted of shielding an abusive priest.
Back in 2012, Finn admitted that he knew about photos of children on a priest’s laptop six months before the images were turned over to law enforcement. That made him the highest-ranking church official in the U.S. to be convicted of not taking action in response to abuse allegations. A look at key developments in the case against Finn:
___
Aug. 20, 2008 — Finn holds a news conference to apologize for abuse that occurred at the hands of current and former clergy members and vows to make sure such abuse never happens again. The diocese tentatively agrees to pay $10 million to settle 47 pending sexual abuse claims involving 12 priests. The abuse happened between 1951 and 1992.
___
May 19, 2010 — Julie Hess, a Catholic school principal, writes a memo reporting that several people had complained that priest Shawn Ratigan was taking compromising pictures of young children.
___
Dec. 16, 2010 — A computer technician working on Ratigan’s laptop finds multiple images of girls under 12 years old.
___
December 2010 — Ratigan fails to show up for Mass. Deacon goes to Ratigan’s house and finds priest unconscious in his closed garage with motorcycle running. Suicide note found in home says he is sorry for any harm he had caused to church.
Ratigan is hospitalized, then placed in psychiatric care. Finn sends him to Pennsylvania for a mental evaluation but does not inform state of possible child sexual abuse, as required by law.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.