Father Robert W. Finn was convicted of failing to report child sexual abuse since he did not report a priest, Reverend Shawn Ratigan, who had hundreds of lewd pictures of young girls, many of them taken with a personal camera. As a bishop, he is the highest-ranked US cleric ever convicted of covering up child abuse; he is one of two bishops in the world convicted of covering up child sexual abuse. He has been sentenced to two years’ probation, and his criminal record will be expunged if he completes his probation successfully.
…Really? That’s it? That’s all we get? Am I wrong for wishing that there would be jail time? I want people to know that covering up child sexual abuse will never be acceptable, that if they do it they will pay fines and go to jail. I want the disincentives to be so intense that they– if not basic human sympathy– will make people realize that covering up child sexual abuse is not acceptable.
But I suppose we take what we can get, and I am grateful for it. I hope this will be the first of many more prosecutions in the future.
Check this out
http://www.whattheyknew.com
Sounds of silence
I really don’t understand why the Catholic church is OK with being associated with child molestation. Seriously, if I was a Catholic leader, I would consider the catholic leaders = pedophiles stereotype to be a HUGE problem. They seem to be pretty OK with it though.
Also, the age of consent in the Vatican is 12. Just throwing that out there.
So Priests get 10 years – Bishops get Probation.
What do you get for a Cardinal?
And given that Old Ratzinger (More Commonly Know as Pope Benedict since his promotion) was fully aware of all cases and responsible for having them investigated, as Cardinal-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – and every case went across his desk from 1981 ….. and did nothing….. what does he get?
A Get Out Of Hell Free Card and lunch at the White House?
Well, if the priest is the one doing the raping, obviously he’s gonna get more time than the bishop. I do agree that 2 years probation for covering up child molestation is a joke.