Cleric accused of shielding pedophile priest resigns
Three years after Bishop Robert Finn became the first Roman Catholic prelate to be convicted of failing to report a pedophile priest, he resigned Tuesday as head of the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph in northern and western Missouri.
The move comes as Pope Francis is facing mounting pressure from the faithful and from members of his own sexual abuse commission to show that he is serious about keeping bishops accountable when they have shielded or mishandled child abusers.
Parishioners and priests in Finn’s diocese had been petitioning the Vatican since he was convicted of shielding a priest discovered with child pornography on his laptop, saying that the bishop no longer had the credibility to lead. In the last month, Catholics in Chile have been bitterly protesting Francis’ decision to install Bishop Juan Barros in the diocese of Osorno despite claims that he witnessed abuse years ago and did nothing.
Such a resignation is extremely rare when a bishop is not ill or close to the retirement age of 75. Finn is 62 and served the diocese almost 10 years.
The Vatican announced the resignation in a brief note in its daily news bulletin Tuesday, and did not give a reason. The Vatican cited a provision in church law by which a bishop is “earnestly requested” to resign because of ill health or “some other grave cause.”
In a statement released by the diocese, Finn said, “It has been an honor and joy for me to serve here among so many good people of faith.” Francis appointed Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who leads the archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, to administer Finn’s former diocese but did not name a successor.
Finn was convicted in 2012 on a misdemeanor charge involving the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a charismatic parish priest who Finn had been warned was behaving inappropriately with children. When Ratigan took his laptop computer in for repairs in December 2010, a technician immediately told church officials that the laptop contained what appeared to be sexually explicit photographs of young girls.
After Ratigan attempted suicide and was sent for treatment, Finn reassigned him to live in a convent and ordered him to stay away from children. But Ratigan continued to attend church events and take lewd pictures of girls for five more months, until church officials reported him to police in May 2011, without Finn’s approval.