High hopes for Bishop Finn's day in court

Yes, we have high hopes that Bishop Finn's day in court for him, his church and the very protective and male hierarchy in the Catholic Church finally, finally get held responsible both for the students, the children that are supposed to be in their care and for the laws they are supposed to follow. There's a great article in a St. Louis newspaper today: High stakes for church in case against KC bishop. "The charge is only a misdemeanor, but if prosecutors are able to win a conviction against Kansas City Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Finn, they could be opening up a whole new front in the national priest abuse crisis. Finn is accused of violating Missouri's mandatory reporter law by failing to tell state officials about hundreds of images of suspected child pornography found on the computer of a priest in his diocese. Experts say a criminal conviction against Finn, the highest-ranking church official charged with shielding an abusive priest, could embolden prosecutors elsewhere to more aggressively pursue members of the church hierarchy who try to protect offending clergy." (Link to original story at bottom). And let's hope this is exactly what happens. That is, that the court finds that Bishop Finn didn't, in fact, follow the law--that he broke it--by not reporting Shawn Ratigan (since he clearly didn't) and that they find him guilty. In the first place, that's exactly what happened and in the second place, it's long since time this stopped. It's so important to remember, too, that THE REASON THIS LAW WAS CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS BECAUSE OF THE LAST CATHOLIC SEX ABUSE SCANDAL, too. It's obscene. It's unconscionable. It has to stop and here and now is a great place to get it to stop. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/missouri/high-stakes-for-church-in-case-against-kc-bishop/article_71719047-24f4-504f-aa69-ecb7cb913734.html#ixzz1qEmYrJb2