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Whitewash, rinse, repeat

You’ve read about the charges filed against Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn over his allegedly failing to report a priest who possessed child pornography to the police. I wrote about it the other day in detail here.  Barbara Blaine of SNAP writes: “Allegations that a priest has molested a child can no longer be kept […]

You’ve read about the charges filed against Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn over his allegedly failing to report a priest who possessed child pornography to the police. I wrote about it the other day in detail here.  Barbara Blaine of SNAP writes:

“Allegations that a priest has molested a child can no longer be kept secret within the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph [Mo.],” according to a policy approved by Kansas City’s Catholic bishop.

“The new policy on sexual misconduct — at 29 pages, about five times thicker than the old one — spells out the diocese’s legal obligation to report to state investigators cases involving alleged victims under age 18 …”

According to The Star, the new policy is the work of a panel of laypersons assembled by the bishop “about 10 months ago, when he proclaimed “zero tolerance” toward clergy and other diocesan personnel who were found to have abused children.”

The issue flared up last year, The Star when Jackson County’s prosecutor criticized the diocese for refusing to provide names of parishioners who had accused a priest of caressing boys.

“I believe this diocese is taking the right steps,” the prosecutor told The Star. “It’s very important for allegations of this kind to be reported, because other children’s safety could be at stake.”

“Allegations against at least three priests in the diocese have become public in the last two years,”The Star reported.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s a familiar pattern.

Except that in this Star story, the bishop is Raymond Boland, not Robert Finn. The prosecutor is Claire McCaskill, not Jean Peters Baker. And the year is 1994, not 2011.

Area Catholic Frank Kessler sees no evil, writing in the Kansas City Star:

Bishop Finn already apologized a number of times for his poor administrative judgment involving the supervision of one of his priests, Father Shawn Ratigan. The decision to indict Finn and the entire diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges was highly questionable.

Whitewash, rinse, repeat.

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