In May 2011, Rev. Shawn Rattigan was arrested on charges of producing and attempting to produce child pornography after an IT worker discovered the images on his hard drive. In 2012, he was found guilty on five counts and
sentenced to 50 years in prison.
In October 2011, Rattigan's boss–Bishop Robert Finn–faced additional charges after the investigation revealed that he had known about the images for months:
Finn has acknowledged that he and other diocese officials knew for months about hundreds of "disturbing" images of children that were discovered on a priest's computer but did not report the matter to authorities or turn over the computer.
In early 2012, Bishop Finn asked a Kansas City judge to dismiss the charges and on April 5, 2012, the judge
denied his request.
And here I have a personal note to this story. On April 5, 2012, I was with my family enjoying a celebration dinner at a fancy-schmancy downtown Kansas City restaurant. One that has a long, storied history in Kansas City and in its prime was often visited by several Presidents of the United States and other notable visitors to our fair city. On that night, our service in the near-empty restaurant came to a halt as several well-known guests arrived for dinner—Bishop Finn and several other priests.
We watched, getting increasingly irritated as the staff waited on the men hand and foot while our own service came to a crawl. The staff seemed very well acquainted with the men. Yes, we were upset about our table being ignored, but the outrage was that on the very day Bishop Finn had been in court trying to get the most hideous of charges dismissed, here he was with his fellow priests enjoying the finest of dining. Wine, filet mignon, dish after dish appeared as the men laughed and carried on as if they didn't have a care in the world. All of this happening in an area of Kansas City with no fewer than six different homeless shelters within a roughly one mile radius around the restaurant. My family grumbled increasingly loudly at their wicked display of gluttony and indifference to the courthouse case just down the street and the multitudes of homeless just outside the entrance of the restaurant. We wondered—does their flock know they dine like this on their parishioners' dime? Would they approve on such a solemn day?
In the end, Bishop Finn was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse and he received two years probation. Today Pope Francis has announced that he has accepted Bishop Finn's resignation. It is astonishing to me that he managed to stay in the job for nearly three years after his conviction.
"It kind of shook Francis' reputation," said Moss. "Having this resignation and putting right one of the more visible injustices on this, especially in the U.S., I think this is a typical Francis way to reinstall confidence."
Archbishop Joseph Naumann has been named as Finn's replacement. I can't say whether Bishop Naumann was one of the men living high-on-the-hog that night (and judging by the staff friendliness, on many nights), but I do hope he'll have the good sense to avoid such extravagance for the time-being and maybe, just maybe, focus on protecting the children and helping the hordes of homeless folks who live on the streets around that restaurant.