KANSAS CITY (MO)
Pitch
Posted By Justin Kendall on Tue, Apr 21, 2015
Bishop Robert Finn is finally out. Pope Francis has reportedly accepted Finn’s resignation. Finally.
In September 2012, Finn was convicted on a misdemeanor count of failing to report suspected child abuse and received two years of probation. That conviction stemmed from Finn shielding priest Shawn Ratigan, who was found to be keeping sexual images of young girls on a laptop in 2010.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph knew about the images for five months before sharing the information with law enforcement authorities. Instead of keeping Ratigan away from the flock, Finn placed him at an Independence mission house where he would be accused of victimizing a 12-year-old girl on Easter Sunday — the same girl whom he was accused of taking naked pictures of when she was 6 years old.
Ratigan pleaded guilty to several child-pornography-related charges in August 2012. His victims ranged in age from 2 to 12.
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.