This is encouraging news:

The Roman Catholic bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Robert Finn, and the diocese he leads have been indicted by a county grand jury on a charge of failure to report suspected child abuse in the case of a priest who had been accused of taking lewd photographs of young girls.

The indictment is the first ever of a Catholic bishop in the 25 years since the scandal over sexual abuse by priests first became public in the United States.

Bishop Finn is accused of neglecting to report abuse that occurred as recently as last year — almost 10 years since the nation’s Catholic bishops passed a charter pledging to report suspected abusers to law enforcement authorities.

The bishop has acknowledged that he knew of the existence of the photos last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.

During that period Bishop Finn and the diocese had reason to suspect that the priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, might subject a child to abuse, the indictment said, citing “previous knowledge of concerns regarding Father Ratigan and children; the discovery of hundreds of photographs of children on Father Ratigan’s laptop, including a child’s naked vagina, upskirt images and other images focused on the crotch; and violations of restrictions placed on Father Ratigan.”

OK, in truth it’s sad, shameful news. It is especially shameful and disgusting that a Christian pastor, much less a bishop, should be hauled into court for something like this. But the shame is the bishop’s and the bishop’s alone. I can’t pretend, though, to have a long face about this development, though I genuinely hate that it’s come to this. It is way past time for prosecutors to seek charges against church leaders for covering up for child molesters in the clergy. This is only a misdemeanor indictment (and the bishop pleaded not guilty), and he must be considered innocent until proven guilty. Nevertheless, when prosecutors start hauling these bishops to court to answer for what they allowed to happen to Catholic children, you’ll see this crap stop.

Why, after everything that has happened, would a bishop do this (assuming the charges are true)? It boggles the mind. The trust is gone.

UPDATE: I mean, just think about it: the diocese knew this guy was a problem, then allegedly discovered a huge trove of child porn on his laptop — and still they didn’t alert police. I think about all the ordinary Catholic men and women who have to go through all kinds of training just to serve in their parishes because a relatively small number of priests molested kids, and a large number of bishops covered it up. They’re all having to pay the price. And now, despite the trauma of the past 10 years, to have to read something like this:

Stoking much of the anger is the fact that only three years ago, Bishop Finn settled lawsuits with 47 plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases for $10 million and agreed to a long list of preventive measures, among them to report anyone suspected of being a pedophile immediately to law enforcement authorities.

Note well that Bishop Finn is a member of the conservative prelature Opus Dei. You cannot tell who is going to be a good or a bad bishop on this issue by whether or not they are faithful to the Magisterium. Depressing. Infuriating.

UPDATE.2: Don’t fail to notice this, from the local newspaper’s account:

The Jackson County grand jury began meeting after federal authorities filed child pornography charges against Ratigan this year. According to the findings of the diocese’s own recent investigation, church officials knew for five months about troubling photos of young girls on Ratigan’s computer and did not formally notify police or state child abuse authorities. Under Missouri law, clergy must report any suspected child abuse.

The diocese’s own recent investigation found this. In May 2010, a Catholic school principal reported this priest to diocesan officials, saying he was behaving strangely around kids. In December, the diocese found child porn on his computer, and … restricted him. They waited five months to alert the police, as state law required. How is it that in 2011, church officials can behave that way? If convicted, I hope Bishop Finn goes to jail.