Bishop Finn is my Bishop. The Monsignor who was responsible for checking all this out I also know. This is what I know. What happened was they went to the local police contact and told what they knew at the time when they found out. He was Kansas City police. he advised them they didn’t have enough evidence at the time to do too much. Somewhere around five months later more solid evidence came to light and they turned it over to Independence Mo police who got a search warrant and shortly afterwards the police arrested the priest. Both the Bishop and the Monsignor are of the highest moral character but the fact remains that there were children left in danger the whole time. It is a bad situation all the way around but ultimately you do have a guilty priest and not enough was done soon enough. These people got bad advice early on and followed it. It is a shame for everybody and hopefully they can be an example to other Bishops and others in dioceses all across the states that the children must be protected at first notice.
I live within the local KCMETRO media reach. This story has been ‘playing’ out for months. I do not understand why those in charge at their first awareness this pervert was in their midst they did not fire him. To continue to give him access to children is WRONG...
AND to those whose first instinct is to say well ‘everybody is doing it’ why hold Catholics to a higher standard apparently forget their own doctrine about who and what they claim their church is.
of course now we have this which will not help:
KANSAS CITY (MO)Courthouse News Service
By JOE HARRIS October 14th 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and its Bishop Robert Finn violate U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops policies on the handling of priest sex abuse victims, a former grant writer claims. She says she was harassed and fired when the diocese learned she had been an advocate for victims of sexual abuse.
“The environment inside the Chancery office is such that recrimination, retaliation and intimidation prevents those who believe in the precepts found in the ‘Protecting God’s Children’ initiative, the USCCB policies and those promulgated by the diocese from acting in accordance to them,” according to the complaint in Jackson County Court.
Margaret Mata worked as a grant writer for the diocese. In July this year, she says, several diocese employees were pushing to make her a full-time diocese employee instead of an independent contractor.
Without viewing the photo, Capt. Rick Smith said he was advised that although such a picture might meet the definition of child pornography, it probably wouldn't be investigated or prosecuted.
and they turned it over to Independence Mo police who got a search warrant and shortly afterwards the police arrested the priest
Capt 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.
Capt Smith, not the Bishop, 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.
...these people got bad advice early on and followed it.
I think that should read these people were deliberately deceitful and set up Capt Smith to cover their asses.
Somewhere around five months later more solid evidence came to light
The problem first came to light over a year ago.
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.
This apparent indifference after the fact that only three years ago, Bishop Finn settled lawsuits with 47 plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases for $10 million and agreed to a long list of preventive measures, among them to report anyone suspected of being a pedophile immediately to law enforcement authorities.
Further compounded by the fact that "In 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."
Even that did not stir him to see what the Catholic School's Principal had written.
I realize you have not to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to lead the flock but this is ridiculous.
Do you get the pattern here - the only people who did anything about this were lay people. The school Principal, ordinary people complaining, a computer repair man who found the images and finally Capt Smith, a cop, who made them reported it.
To a man, everyone in the hierarchy or in their employ prevaricated, dissembled, covered up and outright lied.
But, worse than that BP, they have betrayed your trust and the people of the diocese