Monday, October 24, 2011

Sermons avoid mention of scandal

The Rev. Justin Hoye was struggling to figure out what, if anything, to say Sunday to his parishioners at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church about the new turmoil facing the local Roman Catholic diocese.

Days before, news had broken that Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese had been indicted on criminal charges of failing to report a priest found to have pornographic photos of children, including children of his congregants.

The priest is accused of having taken more such photographs in the months before church leaders turned them over to law enforcement.

Hoye decided not to address the matter directly from the pulpit but to offer a homily on man and God that emphasized forgiveness.

“Most people are savvy enough to understand what I’m saying without having to actually say it,” he explained between morning services at St. Patrick’s.

The announcement Friday that Finn, of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph had become the highest ranking member of the clergy to be charged with a crime stemming from the sex abuse scandals that have engulfed the church has caused disappointment and anger in the Catholic community here.