VATICAN CITY – The Vatican announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis has already accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted of failure to report suspected child abuse in 2012.
Finn, who was church leader of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri in the United States, when he was convicted, becoming the first sitting bishop to be convicted in the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
In 2012, Finn was convicted for failing to report suspected child abuse in connection with the Fr. Shawn Ratigan child pornography case.
The diocese waited five months to inform police that inappropriate pictures of children at a diocese school were found on Fr. Ratigan’s computer.
During that time, the diocese did not inform the community of this discovery and Fr. Ratigan took more inappropriate pictures of children he knew through church contacts.
According to the indictment, the diocese was made aware of the images on Ratigan’s computer on December 16, 2010.
However, rather than report it, Finn ordered him to undergo psychiatric evaluation and then sent him to a convent under orders to have no contact with children.