KANSAS CITY (MO)
Washington Post
Trial switch of bishop guilty of protecting priest was PR move to help the church, critic says
By Diana Reese
The switch from a jury to a bench trial for Bishop Robert Finn, convicted Thursday of trying to protect a priest by failing to report suspected child abuse, was a “masterful” public relations move to resolve the
Finn, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in the United States to face criminal charges in the church’s child sex abuse scandal, was found guilty Thursday of on one misdemeanor count of failure to report suspicions of child abuse and was acquitted on a second count. He was sentenced to two years’ probation, which will be suspended under specific conditions.
On the plus side, the joint move by the defense and prosecutors to switch the trial with just 24 hours’ notice spared victims and their families the agony of testifying at a long, drawn-out jury trial that had been predicted to go on for two weeks or longer later this month.
But David Clohessy, the St. Louis-based director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said he believed the bishop’s motive was to spare himself more humiliation.
“This was masterful public relations by a desperate bishop,” Clohessy told me. “It was clearly designed to minimize public input and public awareness.”
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