KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Feb. 21, 2014
KANSAS CITY, MO.
Waiting may prove the hardest part as a petition seeking a canonical review of Bishop Robert Finn is en route to Rome.
Catholics here received notification Friday from the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. that he had received and forwarded to the Vatican their formal request for a canonical penal process investigating Finn, bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese.
In his brief, two-sentence letter, dated Feb. 15, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano stated, “I acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 11, 2014 addressed to me. The correspondence which you sent has been forwarded to the Holy See.”
In mid-February, the group, in tandem with Fr. Jim Connell, a retired Milwaukee priest and canon lawyer, made the appeal outlining their case that Finn violated church law by not promptly reporting suspicions of child sexual abuse by Fr. Shawn Ratigan. In such a scenario, it states, canon law gives the pope authority to investigate a prelate and, when necessary, enact a “just penalty.”
Connell, a member of the victims’ advocacy group Catholic Whistleblowers, told NCR Friday he was “delighted” when he found the letter in his mail.
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