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Bill’s ‘Faith Matters” Blog
Bill Tammeus
It’s hard to know exactly what will happen and when but after last night’s “60 Minutes” interview with Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, it looks for all the world as if the days are numbered for Bishop Robert W. Finn (pictured here) of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
Bishop-FinnO’Malley said in the interview that Pope Francis knows he must deal with Finn’s situation “urgently.” Finn was convicted in 2012 of a misdemeanor criminal offense of failing to report a suspected child-abusing priest to law enforcement authorties.
But Finn has remained in office despite that stain, injuring not just the local diocese in countless ways but also making it seem as if the church’s hierarchy really isn’t serious about disciplining bishops who tolerated sexual abuse by priests under their purview.
As The National Catholic Reporter first reported recently and notes again in this piece, earlier this fall the Vatican sent a Canadian archbishop to Kansas City to investigate Finn’s leadership.
That plus O’Malley’s comments cannot be reassuring for Finn, assuming he wants to keep his job. And that’s my assumption, given that after his conviction he failed to do the right thing and resign. Another potential bad sign for Finn was the recent demotion of Cardinal Raymond Burke, under whom Finn served for several years when Burke was archbishop of St. Louis. This move against Burke by Pope Francis shows the pontiff’s willingness to make tough personnel decisions. Perhaps Finn’s removal is next.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.