KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BY JESSE BOGAN • jbogan@post-dispatch.com AND TIM TOWNSEND • ttownsend@post-dispatch.com
KANSAS CITY • Before a Mass started early Friday morning at St. Patrick Parish, the Rev. Justin Hoye pulled an elderly woman to the side and asked her to take her time when reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to the small congregation.
Hoye planned to frame his homily from the Bible passages.
So when it was time, the woman stood, walked to the front of the chapel, and read slowly from Scripture used worldwide Friday in Roman Catholic churches:
“It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself; I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord.”
Hoye went on to preach about judgment, saying people are incapable of admitting the absolute fullness of their own sins.
What he didn’t do was mention Bishop Robert Finn, shepherd of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. On Thursday, a judge in Jackson County found Finn, 59, guilty of one misdemeanor count of failing to report suspected child abuse, including the fact that Finn knew child pornography was on the computer of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who used to be pastor of St. Patrick’s.
But it was clear that Hoye’s caution against judgment and prayers for healing were about Finn and the wounded congregation.
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