Great news on the Catholic front!

Breaking news from The New York Times:

Archbishop’s Aide Guilty of Endangerment in Abuse Case

Here's why it's big news:

PHILADELPHIA – In the first criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official in the United States for covering up sexual abuses, Msgr. William J. Lynn was found guilty Friday of endangering children by allowing a known pedophile priest to continue ministering to youths, resulting in an assault on a 10-year-old boy.

The first time in the US that a criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official is upheld for covering up sexual abuse. As an aside, the current situation of former priest Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn is mentioned, too, briefly, at the end of the article, not surprisingly.

And I only "celebrate" it if, in fact, he was guilty, as it seems he was. I am not taking any pleasure in his guilt, to be clear. I am only glad justice is being served if an injustice was done.

I hope this isn't a case of having "thrown the 'little guy' under the bus", however.

Anyway, the thing is, as I have said here before several times and as SNAP repeats, too--we must stop child and student abuse--sexual, physical, emotional or otherwise--wherever it is and it has been prevalent in Catholic institutions for decades and centuries, across the world, unfortunately and sadly. It must stop.

What must stop, too, is the Catholic Church's attempts, repeatedly, to protect their male hierarchy and leaders, at the expense of their members and students and children. That's disgusting.

Now, hopefully this case will serve as a sort of precedent for Bishop Finn's case, here in our area.

If Bishop Finn is, in fact, guilty, as, I and so many of us think and believe the hard evidence shows, may he, too, be brought to justice.

Frankly, from the information on the case against both Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn, the case here in Kansas City seems far more clear-cut, simple and uncomplicated and possibly damning against both of them, than this case in Philadelphia.

Again, let me be clear, I say this not for anyone to extract any revenge or retribution but so the abuse of children or, in fact, anyone in the Catholic Church or any organization, stops. It must be clear that all of us--our society--does not allow this to happen in hopes that it will at least decrease, if not stop altogether and as soon as possible.

Here's hoping.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msg-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

Catholics: What to give up for Lent

How about pedophilia? Would you give up that one for us, please? And protecting your male, Catholic hierarchy. There's another good one. Please? If not for us and if not for yourselves, how about for your own children?

Here's what happens when you're not a Catholic priest

An article over at The Kansas City Star tells of a man from Southern Missouri who took advantage of a 12-year old girl, gave her marijuana and alcohol and then took sexually explicit pictures of her, disgustingly enough. The local reaction? "The girl told an assistant principal at her school that December that she had been sexually victimized, and police opened an investigation immediately." That, ladies and gentlemen, is what consistently DOESN'T happen when and if yet one more Catholic priest is thought to be taking advantage of young school-age children in their own Catholic schools. No investifgation is immediately undertaken. Instead, the possibly-offending priest is just shuffled off to some other unsuspecting city or town. It's shameful and we've seen it happen time and time again. It's certainly what happened with former priest Shawn Ratigan and it's not going to stop unless or until the public demands it stops. Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/13/3427382/kc-man-convicted-of-taking-pornographic.html#storylink=omni_popular

Once again, If you're Catholic, sexual abuse of children is a-okay!

I said it here before, at least a few times--if you're some Catholic leader of virtually any kind and you sexually abuse a child, a student, say, in a Catholic school, chances are you're going to get away with it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, amazingly enough--to some of us, anyway--is EXACTLY what happened yet again, today, for one Bishop Finn who broke the law by not reporting sexual abuse but, lo and behold, he got away with it and got off virtually scot-free, too. You know the headline, likely. This one is from The Kansas City Star this afternoon: Bishop Finn avoids indictment by entering diversion program Bishop Finn gets to report in--in the future--for the next five years, once a month, and tell what he knows about any possible NEW sexual abuse or misconduct cases so he's off the hook. He gets away with breaking the law. Never mind that he didn't report that last sexual abuse case of Shawn Ratigan. Forget that. Let's just all go forward from here, eh? Makes you want to be a Catholic, doesn't it? Well, almost. This is the most egregious abuse of justice and travesty of this entire school, church and justice system I can imagine. Bishop Finn has no shame at all. How disgusting. How revolting. What's that old quote? You know, the one from the Bible? Oh, yeah, it's this one: "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." --Luke 17:2, King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.). If you weren't disgusted, you should be now, regardless of religion but especially if you're a practicing Catholic. Shame on you, Bishop Finn. If there were a hell, there should be an especially hot place in it for you. But at the same time, congratulations--you broke the law, you let down the children in three different schools in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, protected yourself, the Catholic hierarchy (read: your own butt) and the Catholic Church (sort of, in a sick twisted way we won't continue to tolerate), all at once. With this line of thinking, Jerry Sandusky should be able to get off easily over at Penn State, no matter what he did in those showers with those 10 year old boys, shouldn't he, Bishop? Maybe you can go help him with his case. For once I thought the right thing was going to finally happen, here. Sadly, it didn't and won't. Having said all this, there's only one thing left to say or think and that is that Sinead O'Connor was right, years ago and that she is vindicated in her earlier actions: If anyone should think there aren't a lot of us out here who are beyond disappointed in this action today, but downright angry, they would be very much mistaken. Fight the real enemy. Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/15/3267619/bishop-finn-avoids-indictment.html; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hK6z-DMBis; http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=12379

A SNAP news conference today

I got the following email today: SNAP--Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests--will be holding a news conference today at 2:30 pm. We will be at the Kansas City Catholic chancery office at 20 West Ninth Street (corner of Baltimore). More details will be coming shortly. Good for them. I hope they have good news for us, especially, possibly on Bishop Finn (and how he should go). More here: a clergy sex abuse victim who has never spoken publicly will --announce his new civil lawsuit accusing two priests of molesting him as a boy, and --disclose that he saw one of the priests molest three other boys (one of whom later committed suicide). He will also beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups to come forward & get help. WHEN: TODAY, Thursday, Sept. 1 at 2:30 PM WHERE: Outside the Kansas City Catholic diocesan headquarters (“chancery office”), 20 West Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in Kansas City, MO. WHO: The victim, who is speaking publicly for the first time, along with several of his friends and one-two clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) WHY: According to the new suit, the victim, Jon David Couzens, was molested by two KC area priests. He saw one cleric molest three boys, two of whom later committed suicide. The first alleged predator was Fr. Isaac True, who reported assaulted Jon around 1978-79 when John was nine year old on at least two occasions. The second alleged predator was Msgr. Thomas J. O'Brien, who reportedly molested John in 1981-82. Jon witnessed O’Brien sexually abuse three other boys. One of them has since committed suicide, the suit says. Most of the crimes against John happened at Nativity parish in Independence, where both priests worked. O’Brien was ordained in 1950and is believed to be about 80 years old. He faces allegations that he molested two dozen children (sometimes along with F.r Thomas Reardon) while at a cabin on Lake Viking (northeast of Kansas City) and several parishes (St. Patrick’s in Kansas City North, St. Elizabeth’s, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Independence). He worked at several Catholic institutions (St. Pius X High school and St. Joseph Health Center). He still lives in the KC area and kept working as a priest until 2002. In 2008, Kansas City church officials refused demands by victims to have O’Brien defrocked. He remains a priest today. True was ordained in 1966 and has spent most of his career at Conception Abbey in Conception Missouri, north of Kansas City, where he is still working now. He belongs to a Catholic religious order called the Benedictines. In June, another Benedictine cleric from that same abbey, Fr. Bede Parry, was sued for molesting a Kansas City area boy. Couzens just turned 41, lives in the Kansas City area, is married and employed. CONTACT David Clohessy, SNAP Executive Director 314-566790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com, Mike Hunter, SNAP Kansas City Director 913-634-6490.

At what point, Catholics?

To all Catholics in the St. Joseph-Kansas City Diocese, I ask you, at what point are you going to all truly stand up, speak out and say "Enough!" Word out this week that there is yet a third computer with pictures on it of young children, apparently taken and owned by Father Shawn Ratigan. The first was in St. Joseph, the 2nd here in Kansas City and this last one is in Independence. Then, two days ago comes word that another, different priest was removed from his post (there's a shocker, they're taking action) because of alleged sexual abuse back in the 70's, up in St. Joseph. Really, at what point are you Catholics going to truly and absolutely going to follow SNAP's lead (Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests) and hold these people accountable? Publicly declare that this is no longer acceptable--not that it ever should have been--and withhold your weekly donation to the church and do all you can so your children are protected first instead of the clergy hierarchy. Enough, already! Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/05/2996533/inquiry-of-priest-yields-more.html; http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/05/2996391/priest-removed-from-duties-over.html; www.snapnetwork.org/

Heartening Catholic news

It was great to see the article on the front page of the Star today, telling of our own, local National Catholic Reporter (NCR) newspaper and their work since the 1980's, for pity's sake, to get their church to "do the right thing" regarding the sexual and physical abuse scandals in their church.

That took guts, on their part.

All that time, being virtually the only group pointing out what was happening and what needed to be done, to address the scandals and put the church on the right path.

They're right, too, the rest of us are all "Johnny come lately's" at this, sure, but you know what? More and more groups, from within and without the Catholic Church need to speak up and call for accountability of the Catholic Church's leadership so the people abused can be addressed and so, hopefully, abuses like these in the past can never be repeated.

I say again--and it's stunning that no one in Rome, at the Vatican gets it--there need to be structures put in place within the church so these things don't happen again, once the past abuses have been addressed.


Kudos to the NCR and their work and diligence.

It's been the right thing to do all along.

Link to original story:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/09/1868404/kc-based-national-catholic-reporter.html