The New York Times website reports today (October 14, 2011) that the Roman Catholic bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Robert Finn, and the diocese he leads have been indicted by a county grand jury on a charge of failure to report suspected child abuse in the case of a priest, who had been accused of taking lewd photographs of a multitude of young girls.
The indictment is the first ever of a Catholic bishop in the 25 years since the scandal over sexual abuse by priests first became public in the United States.
Bishop Finn and the diocese had reason to suspect that the priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, might subject a child to abuse, the indictment said, citing "previous knowledge of concerns regarding Father Ratigan and children."
Jackson County Prosecutor, Jean Peters-Baker, said, "This is about protecting children."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment