KANSAS CITY (MO)
Chicago Tribune
Kevin Murphy
Reuters
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A Catholic diocese in Missouri has agreed to a $600,000 settlement of a civil lawsuit tied to the arrest of one of its priests for taking lewd photos of a young girl in 2006, a church official and a lawyer for the girl said on Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed by the girl’s parents in 2011 in federal court accused the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Bishop Robert Finn, among other things, of improperly supervising Reverend Shawn Ratigan and helping conceal his criminal conduct.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit’s claim that the diocese and Finn aided and abetted Ratigan in possessing pornography.
Ratigan, who pled guilty last year to producing child pornography, also was named in the suit. Several other civil lawsuits are pending against him.
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