Posted on 10/14/2011 7:01:15 PM PDT by Lazamataz
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City's Catholic bishop has become the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official indicted on a charge of failing to protect children after he and his diocese waited five months to tell police about hundreds of images of child pornography discovered on a priest's computer, officials said Friday.
Bishop Robert Finn, the first U.S. bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman, and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese have pleaded not guilty on one count each of failing to report suspected child abuse.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Finn and the diocese were required under state law to report the discovery to police because the images gave them reason to believe a child had been abused.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“I wish every man could be as I am”. Paul’s word’s not good enough for you?
Was it child porn?
The cover up of a crime is a crime itself.
Throw the book at the Bishop. Time for the RC to clean house and rid itself of these perverts and other vermin.
That would be my parents. And you?
That is an excellent, excellent point. Thank you for sharing that story. I agree with you, and I like the name "pastoral singlehood"...I think that captures the essence of what Christian celibacy is meant to be.
Also, you are right about Episcopal converts, and it goes even farther than that. In the Eastern Catholic Churches (i.e. Ukranian Catholics, Maronites, etc.) parish priests are typically married.
Accessory after the fact? The archbishop was his superior, his employer, and in fact they had removed this guy from contact with children but they knew he still was around them. He should have been defrocked and restrained from any access to children at all but he was not.
That is one way to rid the world of people - the Greens would love him.
The point (clearly) is: Hold everyone to the same standard.
You must have been the kind of kid who went to summer school.
The Greens (and every other band of demagogues) would love to twist his words while appealing to their authority.
In fact, it's the oldest play in the book.
Paul goes on to say that every man has his gifts. :)
There’s a difference between arguing that celibacy is a gift and between arguing that it’s something reprehensible.
The church did not bring it to the police attention Capt Smith forced them after they had lied to him about there being only one photo.
In fact, the church allowed Ratigan's brother to destroy the laptop. Fortunately, the computer technician had download the images to a flash drive.
"Smith said he was shocked in May when Murphy told him there had been hundreds of photos on Ratigan's laptop, rather than a single image. Smith demanded the computer be turned over to police, but since the computer had been turned over to Ratigan's family and destroyed, it handed over the flash drive instead."
However, now this good man, the Bishop, is being charged because he didn't do it on THEIR timetable.
His timetable was certainly a little off:
Finn acknowledged earlier this year that St. Patrick's School Principal Julie Hess had more than a year ago raised concerns that Ratigan was behaving inappropriately around children, but that he didn't read her written report until after Ratigan was charged with three state child pornography counts this spring.
Even though he had paid out 10 million to 47 plaintiffs and agreed to immediately report any suspected pedophile to the authorities - That letter from a Catholic school principal was ignored.
Even when a memo dated May 19, 2010, Hess wrote that several people had complained Ratigan was taking compromising pictures of young children and that he allowed them to sit on his lap and reach into his pocket for candy
This did not jog his memory to determine what was in the catholic school principal's memo even when, it was claimed, a verbal report had been made to him of the admonishment.
This lack of curiosity for allegations of disturbing behaviour around children and his cavalier attitude towards his promise to the court, is astonishing or unbelievable - take your pick.
If we were to go by the media, the Catholic Church is the only entity to ever be involved with child porn. The Church wil always be a target. I’ll bet the Bishop got indicted only because the KC-Saint Joe Diocese is broke.
I just don’t believe most of the stories. Did it happen? Yes. On the scale the media likes to trumpet? No. Did the Church try and cover it up? Yes, but I believe that it was because they were as horrified and confounded asthe parishioners were. And they simply didn’t know better.
Now Priests are vetted like cops, and are trained in spotting this sort of thing. This guy sound like a rotten apple that slipped through.
Just my opinion..
I agree with you completely that blaming priestly homosexuality or pedophilia on celibacy is idiotic. Though I disagree with the celibacy policy.
Most priests would presumably have little difficulty finding an adult woman to dally with, if only because I believe a lot of women would be turned on by the whole forbidden fruit thing. For those who couldn’t find freely given sex there are of course professionals available.
But a normal heterosexual man who can’t talk an adult woman into the sack doesn’t as a consequence turn to kids or other men. The only exception I’m aware of is situations such as prison where there ARE no women available.
While I’m no expert on Catholic dogma, I would assume the Church considers homosexual relations or child molestation a greater violation of the vows of celibacy than a consensual relationship with an adult woman.
That is definitely not a shocker! The teachers and faculty involved are usually just suspended “with” pay for “years” and eventually cut loose “quietly”. I don’t see that changing anytime soon either!
If I ever run across cp on any computer at work, I will likely fire the individual responsible, but the absolute LAST thing I will EVER do is call the cops.
They do nothing but complicate and/or harm all parties/companies involved, regardless of whether they are innocent or guilty.
Sorry but that quote sound arrogant, egotistical and a bit maniac. Almost like someone in the White House.
What you “believe” about the Catholic Church is wrong.
Jesus Christ was celibate.
It’s scripture and from Apostle Paul...
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