KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Sep. 29, 2014
A Canadian archbishop visited the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese last week on behalf of the Vatican to investigate the leadership of Bishop Robert Finn, the first Catholic prelate to be found criminally guilty of shielding a priest in the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Ottawa, Ontario, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast visited the Midwestern diocese for several days last week, interviewing more than a dozen people about Finn’s leadership, several of those interviewed told NCR.
According to those who spoke with Prendergast, the main he question asked was: “Do you think [Finn] is fit to be a leader?”
The communications officer for the Ottawa archdiocese, Sarah Du Broy, said the archdiocese did not a have comment as “the Archbishop considers it a private visit.”
The director of the Kansas City diocese’s communications office, Jack Smith, said by phone Monday he had “no personal knowledge” of Prendergast’s visit. Later, after checking with “senior leadership” in the diocese, Smith sent an email to NCR, saying, “Nobody has heard of this.”
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