Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Catholic Bishop Robert Finn, Convicted of Not Reporting Sex Abuse, Resigns

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Vatican yesterday announced that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, head of the diocese of St. Joseph-Kansas City, Missouri.  In September 2012, Finn became the first bishop convicted criminally for failure to report suspicion of child abuse by a priest in his diocese. (See prior posting.) Parishioners have been calling for Finn's resignation, and Vatican's Congregation for Bishops conducted an apostolic visitation in September 2014 to investigate. In a posting on its website, the St. Joseph-Kansas City Diocese announced the resignation and the appointment of Kansas Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese.