As I suspected, yesterday's bench trial conviction of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn was a guilty plea in all but name. The "Stipulation of Testimony" presented by prosecution and defense to Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrance concludes by identifying the bishop as a "mandatory reporter" under Missouri Law, responsible for notifying civil authorities when there is "reasonable cause to suspect" one of his subordinates of child abuse.
By stipulating that, Finn gave up what would have been the cornerstone of his defense. Had a jury found that he was indeed a reporter (as the judge ruled in April was its business to decide), it would have had little choice but to convict.
Moreover, the requirements of Finn's two-year probationary sentence make clear that establishing reporting responsibility was precisely what Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was aiming at. The first requirement is: "Ensuring 'mandated reporter' training for clergy and diocesan administrative staff, and instructing all teachers, counselors, clergy and other diocesan agents to report suspected crimes against children, as required by state law." The last: "Personally complying with mandated reporter laws."
In her post-conviction statement, Baker drove home the point:
The bottom line today is that finding by the court, a finding of guilt, means the diocese and whoever is its leader must adhere to the very clear legal requirements regarding protection of children. ...I told you [when the charges were first filed] this case had absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic church or Catholic faith, and I maintain that pledge to you today. This was about the failings of a leader of an organization.
The importance of establishing that Catholic bishops have the same legal obligation to report suspected child abuse as any other supervisor in society cannot be overemphasized. Since Imperial Rome permitted bishops to adjudicate the criminal misbehavior of priests 1,600 years ago, they have seen themselves as having special discretionary authority. Finn's criminal conviction says otherwise.
Unfortunately, Finn himself could not manage to acknowledge his guilt in failing to report the suspected abusive priest, Rev. Shawn Ratigan. The best he could choke out to the court was, "I truly regret and am sorry for the hurt these events caused.” Defense counsel's statement was no better: "The diocesan process and procedures as previously existed failed to adequately identify the necessity to inform the Children's Division of Shawn Ratigan's behavior in a more timely manner. For this, the bishop is truly sorry."
The lightness of Finn's sentence--unsupervised probation--bothers me less than that he wasn't required to say something like, "I apologize for failing to obey the law and to report our suspicions of Ratigan as soon as I became aware of them." If Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Ill., the bishops' point man on sexual abuse, wants to know why the bishops' credibility in this department is (as he recently admitted) "shredded," it's precisely because of their inability to own up to their culpability in covering up abuse and to their legal obligation to report it.
Of course, in the Catholic Church, the buck stops in Rome. A bishop in the United States has now been found to have committed a crime--the very crime that has, over the years, enabled many, many priests to continue to sexually abuse children entrusted to their care. The Vatican is not shy about getting rid of bishops when it believes they have misbehaved. The measure of how serious it is about addressing the sexual abuse crisis and repairing the church's reputation is whether it procedes to remove Bishop Finn from office forthwith.
Jim | Sep 7, 2012 | 5:18pm
For all the history of Henry VIII and the separation of the C of E from the Roman Church, one must look more forthrightly at the RC church’s resistance to English courts and the role this played in undermining Rome’s relationship with England. After 300 years, the England had had it. This is a very OLD story. Will Rome ever learn? I doubt it.
Judy Jones | Sep 9, 2012 | 7:12pm
It is our guess that all of the US bishops have been watching this case against Bishop Finn very closely. The KC judge found Finn guilty of concealing and not reporting sex crimes against innocent little girls. This has NEVER happened to a US bishop before. and there are many other bishops who could have been sitting in that court room and been found guilty also.
This trial and verdict is only the beginning of getting this horrific abuse stopped. It is only the beginning of getting the enabling and empowering of child predators stopped. It is the beginning of protecting kids today.
The courage of brave victims of clergy sex abuse, who are speaking up and starting to contact police instead of contacting church officials, are to be commended for helping to expose the truth. Like Finn has now learned the hard way, it is not the church officials who should be deciding or investigating child sex crimes, that is the job for law enforcement.
Church officials are not able to police themselves because there is no punishment for the bishops who break their own rules. Victims deserve to be treated with respect no matter how long ago their abuse happened, Child predators need to be exposed and removed from their ministries no matter how old the allegations, because they can never be trusted to be around children.
Hopefully this trial and verdict will encourage other law enforcement agencies to investigate the handling of child sex crimes in other US dioceses across the nation. The KC diocese sexual abuse cover up is not an isolated case by any means.
This Bishop Finn trial was an amazing experience to witness. The guilty verdict gives hope to many thousands of clergy abuse victims that justice is possible and that there is hope that no other child will be given the life sentence of being sexually abused.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address),
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
drwho13 | Sep 10, 2012 | 2:57pm
The RC Church has done such a good job of indoctrinating Her flock, the flock is trapped. Thus, regardless of how evil the men in Orders are, the flock believes (incorrectly in my opinion) that they need these men to get to Heaven. That’s a real stopper when it comes to mobilizing the RC laity to stand up against the deep rooted evil within the Church.
Robert Nugent | Sep 11, 2012 | 10:14pm
The Vatican is not shy about getting rid of Bishops, but only the ones who openly discuss or promote women’s ordination, general absolution, ministry with homosexual people, etc. but not when it comes to their responsibilities in cases of sexual abuse. In this case they are promoted to top jobs in Rome ala Cardinal Law.
Alex H. | Sep 18, 2012 | 5:58pm
If we were to fully apply the RICO statute to Catholic dioceses and archdioceses and their management, how many U.S. bishops and archbishops do you think would NOT end up in prison for their roles in the Church-wide conspiracy to conceal priestly child molesters? If we actually had all the facts about every abuse case, what the abusers’ superiors knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it, I’m inclined to doubt that a single one of the archbishops would avoid spending some time at Club Fed, and precious few of the bishops.