Kansas City Bishop promises (again) to report rather than protect sexual predators, but this time he says he means it. Really.
Of course, he said that the last time as well. I personally would have proceeded with the case: the guy obviously has little respect for the law or his own commitments and responsibilities. A.G. Sulzberger and Laurie Goodstein report in the NY Times:
In a deal to avoid a second round of criminal charges, a Roman Catholic bishop in Kansas City has agreed to meet monthly with a county prosecutor to detail every suspicious episode involving abuse of a child in his diocese for the next five years.
Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was indicted in October by a grand jury in neighboring Jackson County for failure to report suspected child abuse by a priest he supervised. He is the first American bishop to face indictment on charges of mishandling an abuse case.
The agreement announced on Tuesday between Bishop Finn and the prosecuting attorney of Clay County, Daniel White, leaves the bishop open to prosecution for misdemeanor charges for five years, if he does not continue to meet with the prosecutor and report all episodes.
Both cases relate to the bishop’s supervision of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who has been accused of taking pornographic photographs of young girls in local parishes and homes. The bishop learned of the pornographic photos last December after a technician fixing the priest’s computer expressed serious alarm, but the diocese did not turn them over to police until May. During that period more photographs of children were taken. . .
Continue reading. Somehow this sounds a lot like the crew at Penn State: anything to avoid “scandal”, and a sentiment along the lines of “They’re only kids. We must protect the important people here.”
