Robert William Finn (born April 2, 1953) is an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph from 2005 until his forced resignation in 2015.
Finn is the only American bishop to be convicted of failure to report a priest suspected of child sex abuse to government authorities.[2]
Early life
Robert Finn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 2, 1953, the second of five children of Theodore (Pat) and Betty Schneider Finn.[3] He has three sisters— Kathleen Fornwalt, Patricia Bax, and Nancy Meyer —and one brother, Richard Finn.
On July 7, 1979, Finn was ordained a priest by Bishop John Nicholas Wurm for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis at All Souls Parish Church.[3] After his ordination, Finn was named as associate pastor of two parishes in the archdiocese. He was later appointed to the faculty of Saint Francis Borgia Regional High School in Washington, Missouri, where he taught from 1983 to 1989. During those years, he lived in residence and served as part-time pastoral associate in area parishes.[4]
In 1989, Finn received a Master of Education Administration degree from Saint Louis University and was appointed administrator of St. Dominic High School in O'Fallon, Missouri. During his tenure at St. Dominic's, he assisted the pastors of area parishes. He served the St. Dominic High School community until 1996.[4]
In 1996, Finn was appointed director of continuing formation of priests and, in 1999, while continuing as CFP Director, he was named editor of the St. Louis Review, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis.
Finn was named by Pope John Paul II as a chaplain to his holiness in August 2003, upon the recommendation of the Archbishop Justin Rigali. Finn served in several other capacities including chairman of the archdiocesan Committee on the Diaconate. Finn served as pastor of Our Holy Redeemer Parish in Webster Groves, Missouri, prior to being appointed the coadjutor bishop of Kansas City.[4]
On May 24, 2005, the Vatican accepted Bishop Raymond Boland's request for retirement. As coadjutor, Finn automatically succeeded Boland as sixth bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.[3]
Finn became a member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which is linked to the Catholic personal prelature Opus Dei. In an interview with the Catholic Key, Finn told of how Opus Dei had helped open his heart to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Upon his arrival in the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph in 2005, Finn said that vocations to the priesthood and religious life would be 'super-priority' for his diocese. Before Finn's arrival, in the 2003/2004 seminary school year, the diocese reported having nine seminarians. For 2007/2008, the diocese reported that there were 24 men studying for diocesan priesthood.
As of December2011[update], Finn served on the Administrative and the Priorities and Plans Committees for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and had been chairman of the Task Force on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person.[4]
Sex abuse scandal
In May 2011, Finn apologized for his failure to act in a more timely manner in the case of Reverend Shawn Ratigan, who was accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with children. Finn had received a letter in May 2010 from a Catholic elementary school principal, reporting numerous instances of inappropriate behavior by Ratigan. Finn said he failed to read the letter. Finn's admission came five months after the diocese discovered inappropriate pictures of children on Ratigan's computer, and a week after the he was arrested on child pornography charges.[6][7][8]
On June 9, 2011, Finn appointed former U.S. Attorney Todd P. Graves to conduct an independent investigation of diocesan policies and procedures used to address sexual misconduct by church personnel, including Ratigan. Finn also announced the appointment of an independent public liaison and ombudsman.[9] In a September 2011 report, Graves said "that Diocesan leaders failed to follow their own policies and procedures for responding to reports" of sexual abuse by clergy.[10]
On October 14, 2011, a county grand jury indicted both the diocese and Finn with failing to inform police about child pornography, a criminal misdemeanor.[11][12] According to the indictment, the diocese became aware of those images on December 16, 2010. Rather than reporting it to law enforcement, Finn ordered Ratigan to undergo psychiatric evaluation, then sent him to a convent under orders to have no contact with children. During that time, Ratigan proceeded to take more inappropriate pictures of children he met through church contacts.[11] Without Finn's approval, other diocesan officials finally reported Ratigan to police on May 11, 2011. Ratigan eventually pleaded guilty to five counts of producing child pornography and was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.[2][13]
While other bishops had been charged with directly perpetrating abuse, Finn was the first U.S. bishop to be charged in his role as a supervisor of priests, the first criminal case against a sitting bishop in the child sex abuse scandal in the American Catholic Church. Finn was convicted on one charge in September 2012 and sentenced to two years of probation.[2] All charges against the diocese itself were dropped.[14][15]
In September 2014, the Vatican initiated an apostolic visitation to the diocese, conducted by Archbishop Terrence Prendergast. The director of SNAP called the investigation "overdue".[16] Cardinal Sean O'Malley from the Archdiocese of Boston criticized Finn's actions in a November 2014 interview with the television news program 60 Minutes. O'Malley said that Finn's conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse would disqualify him from teaching Sunday school in the archdiocese. "It's a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently," O'Malley said.[17]
Resignation
On April 21, 2015. the Vatican announced that Finn had resigned as bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph without providing any reason.[18][3] In 2016, Finn became chaplain of the School Sisters of Christ the King Convent in Lincoln, Nebraska.[19] As of July 2018, he had largely limited himself to this role, but has made occasional public appearances.[20]
"Our Catholic moral principles teach that a candidate’s promise of economic prosperity is insufficient to justify their constant support of abortion laws, including partial-birth abortion, and infanticide for born-alive infants. Promotion of the Freedom of Choice Act is a pledge to eliminate every single limit on abortions achieved over the last thirty-five years. The real freedom that is ours in Jesus Christ compels us, not to take life, but to defend it."[23]
Related Research Articles
The Archdiocese of St. Louis is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perry, Saint Charles, Saint Francois, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, Warren, and Washington. It is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province containing three suffragan sees: Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, the Diocese of Jefferson City, and the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph.
The Archdiocese of Denver is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Colorado in the United States.
The Diocese of Reno is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the northern Nevada region of the United States. It is a suffragan diocese, formerly of the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Francisco and, since May 30, 2023, of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas.
The Diocese of Belleville is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the Southern Illinois region of the United States. It is a suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction—an archdiocese—of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese covers a portion of Southeast Texas, and is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province covering east-Texas. The archdiocese was erected in 2004, having been a diocese since 1959 and the "Diocese of Galveston" since 1847. It is the second metropolitan see in Texas after the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northwestern Missouri in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Louis.
The Archdiocese of Newark is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
The Diocese of Jefferson City is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the state of Missouri in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of St. Louis.
The Diocese of Cheyenne is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the US state of Wyoming. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Denver.
The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas is a Latin Church ecclesiastical province, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Kansas in the United States.
The Diocese of Dodge City is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in southwestern Kansas in the United States. Pope Pius XII created the diocese on May 19, 1951.
The Diocese of Salina is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Kansas in the United States.
The Diocese of Wichita is a Latin Catholic ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Kansas in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.
The Diocese of Knoxville is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Tennessee in the United States. It was founded on May 27, 1988, from the eastern counties of what was then the Diocese of Nashville. The diocese is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Louisville.
The Diocese of Lincoln is a Latin Church diocese in Nebraska, United States, and comprises the majority of the eastern and central portions of the state south of the Platte River. It is a suffragan see to the archdiocese of Omaha. The episcopal see is in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bishop James D. Conley is the current ordinary of the Diocese. The Cathedral of the Risen Christ is the cathedral parish of the diocese.
The Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Missouri in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Louis.
The Diocese of Saint Cloud is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in central Minnesota in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Charles Herman Helmsing was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph in Missouri (1962–1977).
George Joseph Lucas is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Omaha in Nebraska since 2009, having previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois from 1999 to 2009.
Michael Francis McAuliffe was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City in Missouri.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
