KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has found a Missouri bishop guilty of one misdemeanor count for failing to report suspected child abuse by a priest, and acquitted him on a second count.
Robert Finn is the nation’s highest-ranking Catholic official charged with shielding an abusive priest. He received two years of probation, but that sentence was suspended.
The charges stem from the child pornography case of Rev. Shawn Ratigan, in which Finn and other church officials knew about photos on the priest’s computer but didn’t turn him in for six months.
Ratigan pleaded guilty in August to child porn charges.
Finn has argued he was not the diocese’s mandated reporter under state law, saying that responsibility rested with the diocese’s Vicar General.
