I have been following the various trials of Catholic clergy
that have been accused of shielding abusive priests and in essence, allowing
the abuse of children to continue.
This has been the first time in our history, to my
knowledge, that “enabler” priests have been brought up on civil charges for
failing to report to local authorities, priests under their supervision, that
they knew were abusing children or had strong evidence that abuse may be taking
place.
To me, knowing that a priest was abusing children and doing
nothing about it is the same as abusing those children yourself.
In this case, the bishop knew of the child pornography found
on a priest’s computer. The hundreds of child porn photos discovered by a
computer technician were so graphic especially of little girl’s private parts
that the technician could not open the lap top to show a church deacon the
photos.
Even more disturbing is that Bishop Finn allowed this priest
(Father Ratigan) to have contact with children, knowing what he knew.
The case of Kansas
City Bishop Robert Finn is interesting on a number of levels.
On one level, the Church is getting smart about protecting
itself from unwanted publicity. Finn agreed to forgo a jury trial and instead
have trial by judge or a bench trial that limits exposure.
I also found it interesting that Bishop Finn became very
angry when he learned that a church leader reported Father Ratigan to the
police. Finn said he wanted to “save Father Ratigan’s priesthood” and “it was
only pornography”.
This naïveté by Catholic leaders is very dangerous because
it is so common among Catholic leaders and because it points to the disturbing
fact that these priests care more about their fellow priests and the welfare of
their church than they do about innocent child victims of priestly abuse…to me
this indicates a lack of basic humanity among church leaders which makes them
hypocrites as they keep telling us that their job is to serve humanity.
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