MISSOURI
Kansas City Star
The Editorial Board
The special Service of Lament on Sunday was a positive, public step toward healing from decades of sexual abuse by priests within the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
It follows long-needed efforts by the Vatican last year to crack down on bishops who cover up for priests who molest children.
Under that pressure, Bishop Robert W. Finn finally resigned as leader of the diocese in April 2015. That action was too long in coming; it was three years after he was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse by a priest, Shawn Ratigan.
Ratigan, who has been removed from the priesthood, pleaded guilty in 2013 to federal charges of producing and attempting to produce child pornography and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
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.