I shared with my wife the horrific news of a priest friend of ours charged with possession of child porn. My daughter overheard it. That was not good.
I found the trail on dotCommonweal in one of the usual threads on the John Jay report. I was not prepared for what I found. Or for the young miss to walk off out of the house upset about a priest she liked, admired, and trusted.
Can the bishop involved in this case plead naiveté?
I deeply regret that we didn’t ask the police earlier to conduct a full investigation.
Law enforcement personnel are puzzled:
Jim Roberts, a spokesman for the Clay County prosecutor’s office, said prosecutors did not know why the church didn’t immediately give the images to law enforcement. He said the investigation was continuing and involved multiple law enforcement agencies.
The bishop has to report. I have to report. Anyone in church ministry has to report. We know we have to report. Report, and let the police authorities determine how to proceed. The Church gets into trouble–and here a bishop has landed in deep trouble–trying to do the right thing. But avoiding doing the right thing.
21 May 2011 at 7:24 am
My bet would be that Bishop Finn believed that he covered his bases when the diocese communicated with “a” police officer about the images in December. As ever, hair-splitting (“troubling but not pornographic”) is the order of the day and this bishop and his ilk delusionally believe that they know what they are dealing with. As soon as an official investigation was launched, more images were uncovered and these were pornographic. I am sorry for the upset of your daughter–ideals hurt when they are injured. Something that I say to kids is “Have you noticed that the grown-ups are having trouble running the world?” Almost all of them agree that this is so and then I have a context for them to reflect within.
21 May 2011 at 10:27 pm
From a reader who is across the Catholic divide, I am so sad that this has happened. There are prayers being offered tonight from all across your extended faith family.
22 May 2011 at 2:47 pm
So disturbing. As someone who was abused as a kid, I know that part of the weirdness is finding out that someone you like isn’t the person you thought they were.
22 May 2011 at 7:33 pm
I can empathize with you, Todd. I know two of the 21 priests recently suspended in Philadelphia (though I’ve not been as close to them as you were to Father Ratigan).
It is truly amazing what we don’t know about someone…but I prefer to look at it in this way: the Lord Jesus is still there, and he’ll never disappoint us, even if one of those acting in his person (in persona Christi) do.
24 May 2011 at 12:52 am
Prayed for you and your family over the double terrible news of your brother (RIP) and the pedophile priest.
27 May 2011 at 8:15 am
[...] of the prominent Catholic bloggers either didn’t hear about it or ignored it. One who did mention it was affected personally, and he reported that his young daughter was devastated by the news of a [...]
31 May 2011 at 9:01 am
[...] of the prominent Catholic bloggers either didn?t hear about it or ignored it. One who did mention it was affected personally, and he reported that his young daughter was devastated by the news of a [...]