Posts Tagged Bishop Robert Finn
Convicted bishop is Catholic hierarchy’s elephant in the room – The Washington Post
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Voice of the Faithful on November 9, 2012
“As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathers for its annual fall meeting in Baltimore next week (Nov. 12-15), one of the biggest issues confronting the prelates won’t be on the formal agenda: how to cope with the re-election of a president whose policies many bishops denounced as unprecedented attacks on the Catholic Church.
“But another topic not on the agenda may loom just as large for a hierarchy hoping to wield influence in the public square. In September, Bishop Robert Finn of Missouri became the first bishop to be found guilty of covering up for a priest suspected of child abuse.”
By David Gibson, Religion News Service, in The Washington Post
Finn Conviction Shows Major Child Protection Charter Flaw — Bishop Accountablity
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on September 12, 2012
Voice of the Faithful® has maintained for years that one of the serious flaws preventing the U.S. Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People from being effective is lack of accountability for bishops. Bishop accountability, specifically the stipulation of disciplinary action for charter violations, for example, was key among the recommendations VOTF made when meeting in February 2011 with Diane Knight, then chair of the USCCB National Review Board, and Teresa Kettelkamp, then Executive Director of the USCCB Office for the Protection of Children and Young People. VOTF reiterated those recommendations in April 2011, as the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was expanding. Now, Al Notzon, present Chairman of the USCCB’s National Review Board will soon bring bishop accountability before his board, according to a recent National Catholic Reporter article.
Kansas City Bishop’s Guilty Verdict Raises National Questions
“The conviction last week of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse indicates that “clearly there is a problem” with how the procedures adopted by the U.S. church to protect children are being used, a key adviser to the U.S. bishops on the issue said Monday (Sept. 10, 2012).
“Central to that problem, said Al Notzon III, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board for clergy sex abuse, is the question of accountability for bishops who do not comply with the norms and conditions the body of bishops agreed to 10 years ago. The procedures are spelled out in the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
“One of Notzon’s predecessors on the review board, Judge Michael Merz, called the Finn case “a serious embarrassment to the church.”
“How can you continue to preach that the charter is effective if, in fact, these types of things continue to happen?” Merz asked.
“Notzon told NCR on Monday he planned to bring up the problem with the full review board, then make recommendations to the U.S. bishops.” Quotes from article by Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
Bishop Finn Conviction Precipitates Two Issues: Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese Governance & USCCB Integrity
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on September 10, 2012
National Catholic Reporter Editorial
“If Bishop Robert W. Finn wanted today to volunteer at a parish in the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese to teach a religious education class or chaperone a parish youth group to World Youth Day, he couldn’t do it. Convicted of a misdemeanor charge of failure to report suspected child abuse, Finn wouldn’t pass the background check necessary to work with young people in the Catholic church.
“That is, he could not serve in those positions if he were just a layman, deacon or priest. But he is a bishop, and that makes all the difference. And he can, apparently, do anything he wants under church law.
“There are two issues at play here: the governance of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese and the integrity of the U.S. bishops as a national conference …”
Defying Canon and Civil Laws, Diocese Failed to Stop a Priest / The New York Times
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on September 8, 2012
Defying Canon and Civil Laws, Diocese Failed to Stop a Priest
“After Father Ratigan was arrested, Bishop Finn met with his priests. Asked why Father Ratigan was not removed earlier, the bishop replied, according to the testimony, that he had wanted ‘to save Father Ratigan’s priesthood’ and that he had understood that Father Ratigan’s problem was “only pornography.” By Laurie Goodstein, The New York Time
Civil Authorities Hold Bishop Accountable with Finn Conviction; Something Church Unwilling to Do
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Clergy, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on September 7, 2012
Bishop Robert Finn, pastoral leader of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., yesterday became the first bishop, and the highest Roman Catholic Church official, to be convicted in criminal court in America for his role in the Church’s decades-long clergy sexual abuse scandal. Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful® decries the fact that our Church, as moral authority, was unwilling to hold Bishop Finn accountable and left it to civil authorities to do so.
VOTF has long felt that our Church will never be healed of the deep wounds clergy sexual abuse causes until the Church reveals secrets that helped spread the scandal, secrets like those Bishop Finn kept. The Church must bolster its child protection guidelines to provide the means and methods of holding bishops accountable if they cover up abuse, placing the institution of the Church above the welfare of children.
VOTF also feels that, as painful as a jury trial for Finn and prosecution of the diocese would have been, the Church would have been better served if the public had been allowed to hear testimony from those harmed by the bishop’s actions.
Finally Voice of the Faithful®, as it has done repeatedly in the past, calls on the Vatican and the bishops to hold accountable those among them who knowingly fail to remove clerics who abuse children and will be looking for the Vatican and United States Conference of Catholic bishops to act regarding Bishop Finn, at least in terms of fraternal correction.
Voice of the Faithful®: Voice of the Faithful® is a worldwide movement of concerned mainstream Roman Catholics working to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, support priests of integrity and increase the laity’s role in governance and guidance of the Church. More information is at http://www.votf.org.
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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