KANSAS CITY (MO)
Waiting for Godot to Leave
There’s something about Christ and how we fail Him that we can learn from Kansas City / St. Joseph Bishop Finn.
Here’s what Bishop Finn did –
He was informed by letter by a Catholic School Principal at St. Patrick’s Parish in Kansas City that parents and teachers were concerned about the behavior of their pastor, Fr. Ratigan, who was trying to spend time alone with students, who insisted on giving a little girl a massage at a church event, who was taking a lot of pictures of little girls, and in whose garden a pair of little girl’s underwear was discovered. Bishop Finn ignored the letter.
A year later, a computer technician finds hundreds of photos on Fr. Ratigan’s computer – photos of little girl students at the parish school, and one of a sleeping two year old, with her diaper moved to the side to reveal her genitalia – all taken by Fr. Ratigan. In fact, the photos of the students were taken surreptitiously on the playground, at the cafeteria and elsewhere, and included close-ups of girls’ crotches, and some where their underwear or genitals were showing. Also on the computer were links to sites that sell spy cameras. The computer is taken to Msgr. Murphy, the vicar general, who before seeing the photos, (that’s right, before seeing the photos) calls an off-duty police officer and asks him if a few photos of a mostly-clothed children could be pornographic. The off-duty police officer says, “Maybe.” This is the only contact the diocese makes with the police, until they are forced to contact them again six months later. Some of the photos are downloaded from the computer by the chancery, but Bishop Finn gives the computer to a relative of Fr. Ratigan’s, who then promptly destroys it.
Fr. Ratigan attempts suicide but survives. He is sent to a counselor in Pennsylvania for a very brief evaluation. The counselor says, “This man is fine. He just needs the principal of the school to stop picking on him.” Bishop Finn does not allow the parishioners to know what has happened; they are only told of the suicide attempt. No effort is made to determine who the victims were. No effort is made to contact their families, to see if the children were physically assaulted as well as photographed. No counseling or outreach or intervention of any kind is offered. The victims and their families are kept entirely in the dark.
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