Catholicisms Dirty Open Secret

"Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God" ......


Too Many Little Children Betrayed
By The Catholic Church?

.... Now the Catholic church over the millennium  has suffered one or two scandals, and in fact it was the corruption of the medieval popes that finally led to the last major schism, and the split into Protestantism and Catholicism.

 

But it cannot be doubted that in modern times in Europe (and to a lesser extent the USA), with all religion on the retreat (except where immigrants are importing their own versions of Christianity, or foreign religions such as the socially regressive Islam), that the damage done to the Catholic church by the 'child abuse scandals' of the last decade or so, is immense.

I haven't posted on it before, because its inherently a very sad tale, of a minority of Catholic priests, using their position to sexually abuse young children (usually, but not exclusively boys), and the attempts of a large number of Bishops to cover these crimes up, by not reporting the offences to the police. The real shocking part of it, was that rather than at least taking these priests out of circulation by sticking them in closed monasteries to protect children, they merely shipped the priests from diocese to diocese, which only spread the crime further, and placed more and more children at risk of sexual abuse and misery.

 

Now, finally, the civil authorities are catching up with these criminals, and both the perpetrators and those who covered up the crimes are being actively investigated by the police, with criminal charges being laid in many countries. What was really surprising was that despite all the publicity and statements by the Catholic hierarchy, confirming that they had finally learnt the lessons, and would not cover these crimes up in future, Bishops continued to be lax on the matter.

Reverend Shawn Ratigan And Bishop Robert Finn

When a number of photographs of young girls taken by Reverend Shawn Ratigan were found on his laptop by a computer technician, it was reported to Bishop Robert Finn and diocese officials at Kansas City-Saint Joseph in May 2010. To be fair those officials apparently contacted a friendly police officer and the diocesan attorney the next day, both of whom said that they didn't consider the images in of themselves to constitute child pornography, and thus in their opinions there was no crime to report either to a diocesan review board or to the police. 

But there had already been concerns raised before about Reverend Ratigan and his involvement with children. In 2009 parents had become concerned that he was spending far too much time with children, and also taking too many photos of the youngsters while they played, and when they participated in Church events.

Then in May 2010, a principal at a Catholic elementary school where Reverend Ratigan served, wrote a very detailed five-page memo to the diocesan officials, outlining her concerns about the priest’s inappropriate conduct, though she did not report a specific charge of abuse ... this memo wasn't read by Bishop Finn, until a year after its receipt, although he had been briefed when it had arrived.

These previous concerns should surely have raised the red flags to Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese  lawyer, as they, and the photographs, showed a continuing and ongoing unhealthy interest in young children/girls. In fact, when he learnt that the images of children on his laptop had been discovered, the Reverend Ratigan apparently attempted suicide. His parishioners were not informed of the reason for Ratigan's hospitalization, and were even asked to pray for him. After his recovery, Bishop Finn sent Ratigan for a psychiatric evaluation, and then placed various restrictions on his continuing ministry, including a prohibition against working with children. 

 

However some families had reached out to Reverend Ratigan while he was recovering, and despite his being prohibited from contacting, or being in the company of children, Reverend Ratigan accepted invitations to a number of family gatherings which included children. In particular he was said to have contacted at least one 10-year-old girl on her Facebook account, after which her family invited him to dinner. Reverend Ratigan is said to have taken pictures of the girl with his cell phone, underneath the dinner table.

 

Bishop Finn eventually reported Reverend Ratigan to the police, when he found that he had violated the conditions of the continued ministry, especially by his contact with the young girl, whom he appears to have been grooming. However many, including the local prosecutors thought that this was too little, too late, and Bishop Finn, along with other senior colleagues at the church, were alleged by some to have tried to conceal the evidence, initially by returning the laptop with photographs to the brother of Reverend Ratigan. Then by not adequately monitoring him and his contacts after his return to work.

The Catholic church is apparently still not getting it .... the damage they are doing to themselves by this continued attempt to cover up child abuse and pedophilia is immense, and the church may well be tipping the balance against any future recovery in support in many Western societies, by just not being honest about these criminals and getting them out of the priesthood.

Shawn Ratigan was charged with 'producing and possessing child pornography' earlier this year, and Bishop Finn has now also been charged with 'aiding and abetting the distribution of child pornography'. No word on any action against the police officer and lawyer who had initially said the laptop photographs were not pornography. But nevertheless, about time, and maybe the conviction and possible imprisonment of a few Bishops will finally get the Vatican to understand that this is the biggest crisis of the last century, and how it tackles it now, may decide the future of the church for the next century ...... as I quoted at the start of the article, surely these pedophile priests are breaking one of the most basic tenets of Christianity?

Update:

Bishop Finn and the diocese were charged in Oct. 2011 with with failing to report that a child might be subject to abuse. They all pleaded "not guilty," but Bishop Finn was found guilty, and in September 2012 received a suspended sentence of two years' probation. The diocese received a fine of $1.1 million, when an arbitrator ruled that it had violated the terms of an earlier settlement.

Reverend Shawn Ratigan, who was found also to have touched children's private areas while posing them for photographs (often while they were asleep), changed his plea to "guilty" on the 2nd of August 2012. He was sentenced in September 2013, to 50 years in a federal prison.

However Bishop Finn still remained as Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, this despite a massive amount of local and nationwide criticism, and protests, with continuing calls for his resignation, including some of the closest advisors to Pope Francis on anti-abuse efforts. Finally in September 2014, the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops sent a representative to investigate Finn's leadership and in April 2015, Pope Francis accepted Finn's resignation.