TKC BREAKING NEWS!!! SNAP responds to Former KCPD Chief Corwin's Appointment To The Kansas City Catholic Review Board

A strong response to recent news about an appointment for Former KCPD Chief Corwin.

Take a look:

New Catholic panel head means nothing, SNAP says

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 27

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

This appointment is yet another part of Finn’s carefully choreographed public relations campaign to persuade parishioners and the public that he’s “reforming.”

As we’ve said before, Finn and his top aides are the problem, not a small group of lay people.



First, there’s nothing “independent” about a panel hand-picked by a bishop, especially one who faces criminal charges of endangering kids and who essentially admits that he kept evidence of child sex crimes from police for months.

Second, Finn’s predecessor set up this committee, but Finn ignored it. He kept evidence of Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s crimes from police AND from his own, hand-picked panel. It doesn’t matter who’s on a panel if that panel is ignored, side-stepped and deceived.

Third, even when panel members learned last summer that Ratigan’s crimes had been hidden from them, they didn’t blast Finn, insist on real reforms, or resign in protest. They are nice, well-meaning but dreadfully timid and ineffectual individuals who clearly treasure their status as appointees more than they treasure the safety of kids. They have little, if any, real impact on the safety of kids in the KC diocese.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/q7xz9/_/(These panel members also said and did nothing when Finn kept Fr. Michael Tierney in a parish for more than six months despite multiple allegations of sexual misdeeds against him.)

For a decade, every bishop in the US has had such a panel. Each is chock full of people with impressive-sounding titles and resumes. However, it’s largely “garbage in-garbage out.” The vast majority of these panel members are basically “yes men”

We’ll soon hear tough talk from Corwin about his plans and his supposed “independence” But one of Corwin’s former top staffers has been implicated in the heinous Ratigan case; Captain Robert Smith

According to an article last year in the KC Star, a KC Catholic official called Smith in December 2010 and described one of Fr. Ratigan’s thousands of photos of young girls to him. Smith reportedly told church officials that the picture wasn’t pornography. On that basis, Finn claims he decided to not turn over more photos to detectives.

(We also believe that when Smith was a member of Finn’s hand-picked sex abuse panel he almost certainly advised Finn and other top church officials on other cases involving clergy sex crimes and misdeeds.)

So when hundreds of creepy photos of young girls were found on Fr. Ratigan’s computer, it’s clear that Finn should have called the police chief, the sex crimes unit, the local precinct commander, or any number of other appropriate law enforcement officials. Instead, Finn reportedly called the one police officer he’s most close to and comfortable with – Captain Smith.

Supposedly, Finn didn’t show Smith any photos. Allegedly, Smith didn’t tell Finn to turn the photos over to the department. Reportedly, Smith told Finn that one picture, described to but not shown to him, was NOT child porn.

Because neither Finn, Smith, nor Smith’s boss Corwin have ever really publicly addressed questions about the matter, troubling doubts remain. Those doubts, we fear, may deter victims from trusting and reporting to the police.

Given all this, it’s clear to us that Finn likely took advantage of Smith’s trust and was less than forthcoming. It’s also clear to us that, if Finn had done what any responsible person would have done – give the evidence to the appropriate police officer – other kids would not have been exploited and other families would not have been traumatized by Fr. Ratigan.

So because Finn acted inappropriately – by talking with Smith instead of giving evidence to police, by describing one photo to Smith, instead of turning over hundreds of them – we believe Finn has forfeited the privilege of having police officials on his panel.

It’s crucial that abuse victims trust law enforcement, and that such trust is jeopardized when it seems to some that there are questionable ties between Finn and some police.

Having police officials on a diocesan abuse panel – especially this one – is risky. It might prevent some who know of or suspect clergy sex crimes from calling the police department. Why take this risk?

The bottom line is that Finn can hire all the lawyers he wants and appoint all the panel members he wants. But this sad, simple reality remains: Finn is the bishop. He answers to no one. He’s acted irresponsibly before with kids, and he will do so again.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
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