Kansas City Catholic Bishop Indicted for Abuse Cover Up

I have long maintained that the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy will never voluntarily police itself and rid its ranks of those who knowingly - and all to willingly - covered up for child rapists and sexual predators withing the Church's clerical ranks. Appearances and protecting their own trump the safety of children and youths who sadly were viewed as expendable. A discardable commodity if you will even as the morally bankrupt continues to demonstrate unconscionable levels of hypocrisy as it preaches against gays, contraception and a host of other things that in terms of relevance and moral degeneracy pale compared tot he rape and abuse of children and youths. Hence the need for the civil authorities to prosecute and hopefully jail the "princes of the Church" who have demonstrated moral bankruptcy and protected abusers. Now, in Kansas City a Catholic bishop has been indicted for his malfeasance. May he be the first of many who deserve to be indicted and imprisoned. Here re highlights from the New York Times:

A bishop in the Roman Catholic Church has been indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse, the first time in the 25-year history of the church’s sex abuse scandals that the leader of an American diocese has been held criminally liable for the behavior of a priest he supervised.

The indictment of the bishop, Robert W. Finn, and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph by a county grand jury was announced on Friday. Each was charged with one misdemeanor count involving a priest accused of taking pornographic photographs of girls as recently as this year. They pleaded not guilty.

The case caused an uproar among Catholics in Kansas City this year when Bishop Finn acknowledged that he knew of the photographs last December but did not turn them over to the police until May. During that time, the priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, is said to have continued to attend church events with children, and took lewd photographs of another young girl.

Though the charge is only a misdemeanor, victims’ advocates immediately hailed the indictment as a breakthrough, saying that until now American bishops have avoided prosecution despite documents showing that in some cases they were aware of abuse.

“This is huge for us,” said Michael Hunter, director of the Kansas City chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and a victim of sexual abuse by a priest. “It’s something that I personally have been waiting for years to see, some real accountability. We’re very pleased with the prosecuting attorney here to have the guts to do it.”

If convicted Bishop Finn would face a possible fine of up to $1,000 and a jail sentence of up to a year. The diocese faces a possible fine of up to $5,000. Ms. Baker said that secrecy rules for grand jury proceedings prohibited her from discussing whether other charges were considered, such as child endangerment, a felony. But she said the fact that the bishop faces a single misdemeanor count should not diminish the seriousness. “To my knowledge a charge like this has not been leveled before,” she said.

One can only hope that this will be the beginning of a longer overdue trend.