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<DIV class=timestamp>August 14, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">Bishop in Missouri Waited Months to
Report Priest, Stirring Parishioners’ Rage</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Laurie Goodstein"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/laurie_goodstein/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>LAURIE GOODSTEIN</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>In the annals of the sexual abuse scandals in the <A class=meta-org
title="More articles about the Roman Catholic Church."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Roman
Catholic Church</A>, most of the cases that have come to light happened years
before to children and teenagers who have long since grown into adults. </P>
<P>But a painfully fresh case is devastating Catholics in Kansas City, Mo.,
where a priest, who was arrested in May, has been indicted by a federal grand
jury on charges of taking indecent photographs of young girls, most recently
during an Easter egg hunt just four months ago. </P>
<P>Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph <A
title="pdf of Bishop Finn’s statement"
href="http://ncrnews.org/documents/FinnUpdate.pdf">has acknowledged</A> that he
knew of the existence of photographs last December but did not turn them over to
the police until May. </P>
<P>A civil lawsuit filed last week claims that during those five months, the
priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, attended children’s birthday parties, spent
weekends in the homes of parish families, hosted the Easter egg hunt and
presided, with the bishop’s permission, at a girl’s First Communion. </P>
<P>“All these parishioners just feel so betrayed, because we knew nothing,” said
Thu Meng, whose daughter attended the preschool in Father Ratigan’s last parish.
“And we were welcoming this guy into our homes, asking him to come bless this or
that. They saw all these signs, and they didn’t do anything.” </P>
<P>The case has generated fury at a bishop who was already a polarizing figure
in his diocese, and there are widespread calls for him to resign or even to be
prosecuted. Parishioners started a <A title="Link to the page."
href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bishop-Finn-Must-Go/132741796803041">Facebook
page</A> called “Bishop Finn Must Go” and are circulating a petition. <A
title="Kansas City Star editorial"
href="http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/bishop-finns-delays-and-inaction-should-lead-resignation/">An
editorial</A> in The Kansas City Star in June calling for the bishop to step
down concluded that prosecutors must “actively pursue all relevant criminal
charges” against everyone involved. </P>
<P>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 immediately report
anyone suspected of being a pedophile to law enforcement authorities. </P>
<P>Michael Hunter, an abuse victim who was part of that settlement and is now
the president of the Kansas City chapter of the Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests, said: “There were 90 nonmonetary agreements that the diocese
signed on to, and they were things like reporting immediately to the police. And
they didn’t do it. That’s really what sickens us as much as the abuse.” </P>
<P>The bishop has apologized and released a “five-point plan” that he described
as “sweeping changes.” He hired an ombudsman to field reports of suspicious
behavior and appointed an investigator to conduct an independent review of the
events and diocesan policies. The investigator’s report is taking longer than
expected and is now due in late August or early September, said Rebecca Summers,
director of communications in the diocese. </P>
<P>The bishop also replaced the vicar general involved in the case, Msgr. Robert
Murphy, after he was <A title="National Catholic Reporter article"
href="http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/kansas-city-vicar-general-accused-sexual-misconduct">accused
of</A> propositioning a young man in 1984. The diocese has delayed a capital
fund-raising campaign on the advice of its priests, a move first reported by The
National Catholic Reporter. </P>
<P>Bishop Finn, who was appointed in 2005, alienated many of his priests and
parishioners, and won praise from others, when he remade the diocese to conform
with his traditionalist theological views. He is one of few bishops affiliated
with the conservative movement <A title="Group’s Web site."
href="http://www.opusdei.org/">Opus Dei</A>. </P>
<P>He canceled a model program to train Catholic laypeople to be leaders and
hired more staff members to recruit candidates for the priesthood. He cut the
budget of the Office of Peace and Justice, which focused on poverty and human
rights, and created a new Respect Life office to expand the church’s opposition
to abortion and <A class=meta-classifier
title="Recent and archival health news about stem cells."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/stemcells/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">stem
cell</A> research. He set up a parish for a group of Catholics who prefer to
celebrate the old Tridentine Mass in Latin. </P>
<P>Father Ratigan, 45, was also an outspoken conservative, according to a
profile in The Kansas City Star. He and a class of Catholic school students
joined Bishop Finn for the bus ride to the annual March for Life rally in
Washington in 2007. </P>
<P>The diocese was first warned about Father Ratigan’s inappropriate interest in
young girls as far back as 2006, according to accusations in the civil lawsuit
filed Thursday. But there were also more recent warnings. </P>
<P>In May 2010, the principal of a Catholic elementary school where Father
Ratigan worked hand-delivered a letter to the vicar general reporting specific
episodes that had raised alarms: the priest put a girl on his lap during a bus
ride and allowed children to reach into his pants pockets for candy. When a
Brownie troop visited Father Ratigan’s house, a parent reported finding a pair
of girl’s panties in a planter, the letter said. </P>
<P>Bishop Finn said at a news conference that he was given a “brief verbal
summary” of the letter at the time, but did not read it until a year later. </P>
<P>In December, a computer technician discovered the photographs on Father
Ratigan’s laptop and turned it in to the diocese. The next day, the priest was
discovered in his closed garage, his motorcycle running, along with a suicide
note apologizing to the children, their families and the church. </P>
<P>Father Ratigan survived, was taken to a hospital and was then sent to live at
a convent in the diocese, where, the lawsuit and the indictment say, he
continued to have contact with children. </P>
<P>Parents in the school and parishioners were told only that Father Ratigan had
fallen sick from carbon monoxide poisoning. They were stunned when he was
arrested in May. </P>
<P>“My daughter made cards for him,” said one parent who did not want her name
used because the police said her daughter might have been a victim. “We prayed
for him every single night at dinner. It was just lying to us and a complete
cover-up.” </P>
<P>A federal grand jury last Tuesday charged Father Ratigan with 13 counts of
possessing, producing and attempting to produce <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about child pornography."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/child_pornography/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">child
pornography</A>. It accused him of taking lewd pictures of the genitalia of five
girls ages 2 to 12, sometimes while they slept. If convicted, he would face a
minimum of 15 years in prison. </P><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
<DIV
class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT>___________________________<BR>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
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