Lawsuit Seeks to Hold Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Liable For Teen Suicide

While Pope John Paul II and his successors - and liars like Cardinal Timothy Dolan - we busy worrying about the Catholic Church's "reputation" and about hiding Church assets, real lives were being damaged and/or destroyed.  Not that these horrid narcissistic men gave a damn about the countless children and youths who were sexually assaulted and raped.  A lawsuit in Independence seeks to hold the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph liable for the suicide death of one teen sex abuse victim.  Hopefully, the lawsuit is successful and better yet, I hope it is the first on many such lawsuits.  Here are highlights from the Kansas City Star:

A civil trial begins Monday in a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that a boy took his life 30 years ago because of repeated sexual abuse by a Kansas City priest.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/07/4334143/trial-begins-monday-for-lawsuit.html#storylink=cpy

The trial, in Jackson County Circuit Court in Independence, could be notable for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, some say.

“This is an especially significant case,” said Timothy Lytton, a legal scholar at the Albany School of Law and author of “Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse.”  “One reason is that it’s rare for any of these cases to go to a jury; most of them are settled. The other reason is that it’s possibly the first high-profile case on the watch of the new pope.”

Brian Teeman, 14, died of a gunshot wound in November 1983 at the family’s home in Independence. His parents, Donald and Rosemary Teeman, filed the lawsuit in September 2011 after a man who had served as an altar boy with their son told them of the alleged abuse.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, says the diocese shares responsibility for Brian’s death because church officials knew that Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien was sexually abusing boys but covered it up.  O’Brien is also named in the suit. His attorney, Gerald McGonagle, did not respond to a request for comment.  O’Brien, now 86, has been the subject of more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits since 2004.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Michael Manners held as valid the Teemans’ argument that the statute of limitations should be suspended because of what they said was the defendants’ coverup, fraud and concealment of O’Brien’s alleged abuse of their son and other children. The diocese unsuccessfully appealed Manners’ ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court.

The lawsuit says O’Brien forced Brian and three other boys to perform sexual acts in the sacristy at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Independence. The abuse began when Brian was 11 and continued until he graduated from eighth grade, the lawsuit alleges. It says O’Brien warned the boys that if they ever told, they would be kicked out of the church, be disowned by their parents and go to hell.

“The reason they (dioceses) avoid trials is because so much stuff comes out during them,” McKiernan said. “Another dynamic is that if they do take this to trial and they get punished, that may have major implications for all the other cases that are in play.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/07/4334143/trial-begins-monday-for-lawsuit.html#storylink=cpy

Catholic Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest

In what ought to be the first in a huge volume of criminal convictions, the Bishop of Kansas City, Robert W. Finn (pictured at left), was convicted of protecting a predator priest.  Unfortunately, he was only convicted of a misdemeanor rather than a felony, but at least it's yet another signal to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that civil authorities are no longer going to allow these foul men to be above the law.  What is sad is that Finn engaged in the very same conduct as countless other bishops, cardinals, and yes, Benedict XVI himself, yet they have dodge criminal prosecution to date.  In my opinion, the whole lot of them belong behind bars, and I cannot understand how anyone with a shred of morality can continue to give deference or financial support to these morally bankrupt individuals.  The New York Times has details.  Here are excerpts:

A Roman Catholic bishop was found guilty on Thursday of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first American bishop in the decades-long sexual abuse scandal to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest. 

In a hastily announced bench trial that lasted a little over an hour, a judge found the bishop, Robert W. Finn, guilty on one misdemeanor charge and not guilty on a second charge, for failing to report a priest who had taken hundreds of pornographic pictures of young girls. The counts each carried a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, but Bishop Finn was sentenced to two years of court-supervised probation.

The verdict is a watershed moment in the priest sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the church since the 1980s.  .  .  .  .  the Kansas City case has served as a wake-up call to Catholics that the policies cannot be effective if the bishops do not follow them. 

It was an abrupt ending to a case that has consumed the church in Kansas City and threatened to turn into a sensational, first-ever trial of a sitting prelate. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial later this month, but on Wednesday the prosecution said it would be decided in one afternoon by Judge John M. Torrence in Jackson County Circuit Court. 

Before being sentenced, Bishop Finn, 59, his jaw quivering, rose in court and said: “I am pleased and grateful that the prosecution and the courts have allowed this matter to be completed.  .  .  .  .   The church managed to avoid a lengthy, highly public jury trial like the one earlier this year in Philadelphia, where a high-ranking assistant to the archbishop was convicted of child endangerment and sentenced to prison for three to six years. 

The Jackson County prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, said that the expedited trial spared the young victims and their parents from having to testify. She said it also meant that the disturbing photographs of children would not be shown in open court. She said the victims and their families “were all ecstatic that this could end today.” 

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, like some other victims’ advocacy groups, applauded the unprecedented conviction of a bishop but said in a statement that the sentence was too lenient. “Only jail time would have made a real difference here,” it said.

I agree with SNAP.  Only jail time will force the Church to purge the ranks of the hierarchy of those who knowingly enabled and protected child rapists.