Bishop Finn's defense attorneys swing for the fences

Did you see this article in the Star yesterday?

Lawyers for bishop, KC diocese want some evidence kept out of trial

Attorneys for Bishop Robert Finn and diocese make the argument in a pre-trial motion.

It's no surprise, really. The more the Bishop's attorneys keep out of the court, the more likely they are to be able to keep him out of the slammer and serving time as so many of us think he should, given his lack of responsibility and criminal betrayal of the children in their schools.

There are parts, however, that I find particularly egregious if not out-and-out disgusting.

The first is that they want to see to it that they keep material from the Shawn Ratigan trial out of his own trial. They're trying to make sure that "even if the evidence establishes that other diocesan employees described images discovered on the Ratigan computer to Bishop Finn, there is still no evidence to indicate that Bishop Finn read the memo or saw the images,' the motion states."

It seems Bishop Finn wants to get off scot-free in all aspects and claim he had absolutely no responsibilities to these children/students of the church.

Here's what's worst of the entire case and article, at least to me, however:

The motion also seeks to exclude another memo, written in May 2010 by the school principal at the Northland parish where Ratigan was pastor, that raised concerns about Ratigan’s behavior toward children. The memo predates the alleged criminal conduct for which the bishop and diocese are being tried, and Finn never saw or read the memo, the defense says.

This letter that the principal wrote and sent was, as I understand it, from an earlier article in the Star, sent directly to Bishop Finn. If that's the case, it seems difficult to believe that his assistant, Monsignor Murphy, was to intercept his letters and that he did so in this case.

All this said, we have a few things going in our favor on this whole mess, to see to it Bishop Finn is held responsible for the failure of his duties:

--Shawn Ratigan finally, finally admitted guilt in his own case and

--the Cardinal's aide, back East, was found guilty in his case (see link below) and there are some similarities in Bishop Finn's and this one.

Here's hoping justice is truly served here, in this case.

More importantly--much more importantly--here's hoping that, one day soon, Catholic school children will no longer be ignored or denied, let alone sexually or physically abused.


Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/20/3770769/lawyers-for-bishop-kc-diocese.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msgr-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?pagewanted=all