“Boys will be boys,” uttered Bishop Finn after being told about child pornography on Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer. “Sometimes priests do things they shouldn’t.”
Bishop Finn’s appalling gaffe, spoken to a computer systems employee of the Diocese, reveals stunning, inside conversations and new details about Bishop Finn’s cover-up of Ratigan’s crimes.
If boys will be boys, as Bishop Finn claims they will, then priests will continue to abuse kids until the Pope acts definitively to protect children instead of putting reputation over child welfare.
Shawn Ratigan pleaded guilty earlier this month to production of child pornography. In September, Bishop Finn will go to trial as the first U.S. Bishop ever charged with “failing to report” child abuse. We now know that Bishop Finn is guilty of more than failing to report. Bishop Finn actively concealed evidence of child pornography and deliberately put children in danger in order to protect his fellow priest and his own reputation.
What’s remarkable at this point is that despite concealing evidence of child pornography, covering for a child abuser, and being criminally indicted and publically accused of failing to report child abuse, Bishop Finn continues to lead the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph. The Pope invited Bishop Finn to meet with him just this past spring! But through it all, the Pope has chosen not to speak publically against Bishop Finn or the Diocese’s concealment.
Until the Pope acts and as long as leaders like Bishop Finn remain in control, priests will abuse kids and church officials will continue to brush it off as “boys will be boys.”