KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV
By Chris Oberholtz, Multimedia Producer
chris.oberholtz@kctv5.com
By Brandon Richard, News Reporter
[with video]
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph gets a new bishop on Wednesday.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop James V. Johnston Jr., 55, as the new leader in September. He had previously been the leader of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese since 2008.
The selection comes five months after former Bishop Robert Finn resigned after he was found guilty in 2012 of failure to report suspected child sex abuse and was sentenced to two years of probation. He is the highest-ranking church official in the United States to be convicted of not taking action in response to abuse allegations.
An Installation Mass will be held at 2 p.m. There, Johnston will knock three times on the door of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City where he will be greeted by the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Missouri region, Most Rev. Robert Carlson of St. Louis. …
Some groups, like the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, are concerned about Johnston. They say looking at his record, he has done little for sex abuse victims. They hope it’ll be a different story here.
Those who knew him as the bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau say he has demonstrated he is willing to do what it takes to help people.
“He and his two friends were hiking in National Glacier Park and saved a family from plunging over a waterfall. I think just speaks to the kind of person that he is. He has quite courage, and he has great courage when necessary,” said Leslie Eidson, director of communications, media and publications for the diocese in Springfield.
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.