KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star
By MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star
Each Monday afternoon, the priest dutifully drives to keep his 4:15 appointment.
Many people will consider it a meeting with the devil.
The Rev. Chuck Tobin travels to the maximum security federal jail for pretrial defendants in Leavenworth to visit the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, the only Kansas City area priest recently charged in local criminal courts as part of the church sex abuse scandal.
Hate the sin. Love the sinner.
Accusations of pedophilia challenge that spiritual calling perhaps more than any other crime. Even the other inmates despise Ratigan, Tobin said.
Ratigan, he says, is kept in isolation but often endures hours of verbal abuse. Other prisoners scream insults, taunting Ratigan to slit his own throat with a razor the next time guards allow him a shave and a shower. Pedophiles are at the bottom of the food chain in prisons.
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