Two weeks after announcing a series of reviews and changes to his
diocese's abuse procedures, Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn
appointed Father Joseph Powers as his new Vicar for Clergy on June 22.
“With Father Powers assuming the duties of Vicar for Clergy, we
strengthen our administrative oversight of the diocese and draw upon
Father Powers’ pastoral experience in urban, rural and suburban parishes
throughout the diocese,” Bishop Finn said in a statement announcing the
appointment.
Fr. Powers, pastor of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, will be the new
liaison between diocesan priests and the bishop, in charge of
coordinating priests' assignments and ensuring their pastoral
effectiveness.
He will also be responsible for handling any allegations
of misconduct against local clergy, and will serve as a member of the
review board advising the bishop on the status and future of accused
priests.
The new vicar for clergy is taking over these responsibilities from
Monsignor Robert Murphy, who will continue to serve as vicar general of
the diocese.
In his June 22 statement, Bishop Finn explained that Msgr.
Murphy “will continue to have responsibility for general diocesan
administration, directly supervising Chancery employees and serving on a
number of diocesan boards and committees.”
Msgr. Murphy has come in for criticism, along with Bishop Finn, for
their handling of suspicions about Father Shawn Ratigan, a priest
arrested in May 2011 on child pornography charges.
The vicar general went to the police with his own suspicions about
Fr. Ratigan in December 2010, five months before the priest was
arrested.
After Fr. Ratigan's arrest, however, it emerged that the vicar
general had received a letter in May 2010 voicing concerns about the
priest's behavior with children.
According to Bishop Finn, Msgr. Murphy spoke with Fr. Ratigan at that
time and obtained the priest's promise to change his behavior.
Bishop
Finn did not read the original letter, relying instead on his vicar
general's brief verbal summary of its contents and the ensuing
conversation with Fr. Ratigan.
Bishop Finn has said he regrets not reading the letter himself.
The
bishop has also acknowledged that he should have begun a full
investigation of Fr. Ratigan after suspicious photographs were found on
his computer last December.
Instead, Bishop Finn removed Fr. Ratigan
from ministry and placed him under a series of restrictions that he
failed to obey prior to his arrest.
On June 9, Bishop Finn announced several steps to improve his diocese's response to cases of suspected abuse.
The plan involves the appointment of Todd Graves, a former co-chair
of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation Working Group, to
conduct an independent investigation of recent events and diocesan
procedures.
Bishop Finn said the review would “help us to determine the
effectiveness of diocesan policies and procedures in a very troubling
situation.”
The diocese will also undergo an independent review of its current
code of ethics and sexual misconduct policy, while reviewing its staff’s
familiarity with those policies.
2 comments:
It's not the vicar, but the bishop who should go. Why have no bishops been held accountable for their reprehensible behavior? Because the privileged caste protects its own. What we need is an investigation under the U.S. Rico Act.
Bishop Finn, who will hopefully go to jail for his crimes in hiding this known pedophile, has appointed Todd Graves to "investigate", which apparently makes the remaining Catholic church goers feel better.
Of course, it just surfaced today that Todd Graves' specialty is protecting the brand name of corporations that are in trouble, like the Catholic church, as you can see in their advertising at http://bit.ly/qXn6yK
And the beat and the deceit goes on...
Research uncovered by http://www.tonyskansascity.com
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