BISHOP INDICTED FOR FAILURE TO REPORT SEXUAL ABUSE OF YOUNG GIRLS BY PRIEST

Robert Finn, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kansas City Missouri, was indicted Friday on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse by one of his priests. The priest, Rev. Shawn Ratigan was indicted in May. This is the first time an American bishop has been criminally charged with failure to comply with mandatory reporting requirements.

Most states have mandatory reporting requirements. While the laws vary from state to state they generally requires specific professionals to report suspected incidents of child abuse to the authorities. The Missouri law includes ministers in the list of professionals required to report suspected child abuse.

As a general rule citizens do not have a duty to report the occurrence of a crime. However states tend to require individuals who have a special relationship with particularly vulnerable groups such as children, the disabled or senior citizens. Thus teachers, medical personnel, social workers and others with knowledge of the physical abuse are required to report the abuse of their juvenile clients, patients, students, etc.

Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph are accused of not reporting knowledge of a priest taking pornographic pictures of young girls. Finn has admitted knowing about Ratigan’s photographs as early as December 2010 but he did not report the information to the authorities until May. In that time Ratigan continued to attend church events and photographed at least one young girl.

Three years ago as part of a $10 million dollar settlement of child abuse claims by Kansas City Diocese, Flinn promised to report cases of suspected child abuse.