Bishop asks people not to trust him?

Well said. How many times do we mortals have to shoot ourselves in the foot before we Get it? God help us when we are in denial. Pogo said "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Thanks for your commentary, Bill. It expresses what many Catholics like me are thinking and feeling. The church hierarchy, from KC to Rome, has no notion of the REAL nature of the church.

"Those words should raise red flags all the way to Rome." You are assuming that Rome is a source of truth, justice and corrective action. Recent years have shown otherwise. It could be that when Finn said: "Don't trust me.", he was not only speaking to his own incompetence but also wishing that it would all just go away so that he could get back to the fluff and adulation he thinks he job is all about now that he has made the rank of bishop.

It is not hard to trust Jesus Christ but it is hard to believe that Jesus Christ resides in the Roman Catholic Church or that Jesus Christ is represented by Bishop Finn or the heirarchy that rules the Roman Catholic Church today.
That leaves the question as to where to find Jesus Christ. I believe the best answer today is that we must look deep within ourselves and to reach out to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
The structural Roman Catholic Church has failed us and has failed us horribly. Even today they are looking for places to hide rather than looking for solutions to the problems they have created over many decades. The heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is irrelevant even though they do not wish to acknowledge the fact.

When Bishop Finn refers to "trusting the Church" he is referring to his ultra-conservative definition of "church" — an institutional system consisting of a papal monarchy surrounded by the curia and other ordained "princes" of the upper caste who rule over their little assigned kingdoms.     In his world,   the laity are the lower caste herd of peasantry to be kept at a safe distance on the other side of the altar rails as ontological inferiors...   mindless and docile no matter what.     He expects a naive/blind "trust" based solely on the hierarchy's self-perpetuating royal office of exceptionalism,   even though these men have proven time and again that they cannot be trusted to protect anyone but themselves and their "institutional system".
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Yes indeed,   as you taught your students,   it is God's people...   all of them...   who are THE church,   but that is not Finn's definition or the meaning of his words.   Finn is demanding that God's people once again give the pope and his bishops another free pass on moral and criminal accountability...   and for hierarchical business to continue as usual.     These are the same men who voted to exempt themselves from the provisions of their own charter including exemption from zero-tolerance for sexual abuse and enabling.     I think the word for his pleas for trust is chutzpah.
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Well done, Mr. Tammeus!

I think the bishop makes a valid point. We should not put our trust in other people. They will always let us down. It is good to remember that all humans save one, are stupid, self-centered & sinful. It is just a matter of degree.

Did he have to ask?

The criminal and most pathetic behavior by Bishop Flynn must never be described as "error."

AW

I just learned about a court case filed by the parents of a girl who was Ratigan's victim as far back as 2006. An employee alerted the diocese then. . . yet. . .he was shuffled around. Apparently the bishop had not learned from the other cases what not to do!

Compared to us untouchable caste members, bishops above us enjoy freedom from conscience, compassion, reason, caring, love, and common law and common sense.

You see, they have been issued their own, personal get out of hell free card.

Totus Tuus Scotor

There's significant variation of response when people are asked: Who is the church? Sadly, many believe the church IS the hierarchy and that the hierarchy-made church polity is sacrosanct and infallibly dictates the way the church should function. To some of us, me included, this concept of church - confined to bishops, popes, papal bulls, canon law, etc. isn't born out of Scripture. The gospels don't record Jesus speaking in those terms and neither did Sts. Luke and Paul describe the early church as such. Being human, we've constructed an entity that Jesus and his disciples wouldn't recognize and we call it "the Church". What have we done to the Body of Christ, the company of all baptized people? What can we do to reclaim the intent of the Head of the Body? How can we cleanse our thoughts and practices to reflect what Christ envisioned?

Breaking reports on the Star tonight indicate that Finn was warned about Ratigan in 2006. The diocese is now being sued by the parents of a girl whom they say was abused for four years, beginning in 2006 when she was three.

Five years since the first known warning, at least one very young child is said to have been abused for four of those years, and Finn did nothing.

"Don't trust me" could be the most accurate statement he's ever made. Wonder how he reconciles his commitment to "life" with his clear disregard for the lives of children.

I am from the Kansas City, KS archdiocese and have watched these news stories with horror. Bishop Finn is right. We should not trust him. He should do the honorable thing and resign. That the school principal sent a letter a year earlier that supposedly he did not see regarding her concerns about this priest and the authorities were not immediately notified, he should be ashamed.

“Don’t trust me. Trust our Lord Jesus Christ, trust his church.”
This quote reminded me of another one from a famous children's story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX4MydrcO1k

Memo to Kansas City parents:
Do you really want a man who has asked you NOT TO TRUST HIM confirming your children?

I disagree completely.

The only honest thing he said was not to trust him. The worst thing he did was to ignore a pedophile in his midst, as all Catholic bishops have done.

He should now be thrown in jail for reckless child endangerment, hiding a known pedophile, and putting him in a position where he would be around children.

He was informed in late summer of 2010, and ignored it for a year. We all know that Catholic priests have raped thousands of children in the United States alone, and systematically covered it up. Bishop Finn continues this legacy.

Put him in jail, and put anyone else who knew bout it in jail. The citizens of Kansas City should fight to put him in jail, even if Catholic parents don't seem to care.

I disagree completely.

The only honest thing he said was not to trust him. The worst thing he did was to ignore a pedophile in his midst, as all Catholic bishops have done.

He should now be thrown in jail for reckless child endangerment, hiding a known pedophile, and putting him in a position where he would be around children.

He was informed in late summer of 2010, and ignored it for a year. We all know that Catholic priests have raped thousands of children in the United States alone, and systematically covered it up. Bishop Finn continues this legacy.

Put him in jail, and put anyone else who knew bout it in jail. The citizens of Kansas City should fight to put him in jail, even if Catholic parents don't seem to care.

Bill, suppose you asked a group of Catholic children to draw a picture of the church and one of them drew a picture of Bishop Finn. Would that be the correct answer?

I believe the good bishop is making a veiled statement here.
He's waiting to see whether the "lord" is going to expose his priest whereby he himself avoiding his role.
A definate cop out.
Come to think of it, it sounds a little like the charismatics who have an offending clergyman right under their nose and not the "Holy Spirit" or a voice of prophecy enlightening or speaking out amongst them.
Makes you wonder doesn't it.

"Those words should raise red flags all the way to Rome."

Bill, as a cradle Catholic whose bishop who confirmed him (Thomas Tschoepe of the Dallas Diocese) later put a known pedophile priest (Fr. Lynch) on my altar where I was serving as an altar boy at age 16 in 1972, I think you are displaying a lot of naivete as to what Rome REALLY cares about in the way this matter was handled. The only red flags that will be raised are that the coverup was insufficient and worse yet, the bishop admitted personal error. He therefore delivered 2 strikes against the clerical persona of infallibility, especially episcopal infallibility.

If the serfs in the pews are asked to not trust him on this matter, then what about any number of other matters, such as what went down in Phoenix about this time last year and the entire "effort" to shield our children from predators within our Church? Not to mention accepting the laughable new Roman Missal translation and the new secretly concocted worldwide Ethical & Religious Directives we will likely see rolled out later this year that will instruct our hospitals and doctors what and when they can and can not do or act to save our lives.

Your reminder is as important today to people in their sixth and seventh decades as it was to 6th and 7th graders. But, under the circumstances, imagine the reaction if Finn had said the opposite - "Trust me" - to his already outraged audience. That would have been as repulsive and inflammatory as if he had re-issued the long pastoral letter he sent to his diocese in 2007 entitled: "Blessed Are the Pure In Heart - A Pastoral Letter on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography".
He has disabled himself as a bishop by his words, actions, and inactions. Red flags seem to draw little attention in Rome, but Kansas City appears to be duly alerted.
http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/_docs/Pastoral-02-07.pdf

What does the Catholic Church say that it is, and, for what it is worth, insists that i agree?. If I had the time and scholarship I would find authoritative, annotated sources, but...what the hay.

The church says, insists that the "bishopric" is the "fullness of the priesthood". It also says that an exclusive, male priesthood is "better" than not being - a male-cleric. And...women are excluded not only from the "fullness" but from the "lesser"(?) "ordinary"(?) priesthood. What sort of picture would the "child in me" draw of this scenario (if i could get beyond the image of a great big, soaring cathedral with stick-figures with miters holding hands in a circle herding scurring mindless ants)?

It also says that priestly exclusive "powers" which "ontologically" alter the recipient upon ordination are absolutely essential for my salvation. Sooo...bishops (and their etc. of hierarchy) are distinct, superior and "other" than "merely" ordained who are other and superior to me (a male) and i, along with the female "chattel" are subordinate to...? This is getting confusing. Am I responsible for the poor "non-males" or will the priesthood herd them, or will the other ("fullness") herd them too? This diagram is becoming psychopathological. I need help.

"Glory be to the Father...."
Does Bishop Finn "give glory to the Father...."

The only error I found in this very proper challenge to Bishop Finn was, "...the church is the people, includng the people whom members trust to be their leaders." I can understand, with his Presbyterian background, whether he is till a Presbyterian or a Catholic convert, that Bill Tammeus has a notion of "trust" as something you place in someone you have chosen, usually with others, to be your leader. As we too well know, that is not the Catholic way. Catholic leaders, not popes, not bishops, not priests, not religious Brothers or Sisters or other lay leaders, are chosen or called, but assigned from above with no part played by the people who are presumed to submit to them. It is all autocratic, from the royal top down to the sexually abused kids at the bottom of that ladder of hierarchy. They were those so low among the People of God that they weren't even considered part of the hierarchy. Therein lies your problem. The Catholic Church is a monarchy, an out-dated, disgraced, foolish monarchy. Jesus, its leader, was a genuine democrat, small "d". Even a socialist. No genuine correction will happen to the Catholic Church until that monarchy is dismantled. Democracy is imperfect, true, but monarchy is always despotic, "sinful," and as in so many obvious, current instances, criminal.

Wow!CWG, are you a bishop or something higher? Only one at the top would have the arrogance you displayed. I cannot imagine Jesus being concerned with all the nonsense you guys has spent so much time and energy beating your gums. Quamdiu, Domine?

BISHOP FINN DID CONTACT THE POLICE - TWICE!!! First, at the very first indication that Ratigan had pictures. The police told him there was nothing they could do unless something more turned up. At that time HE PLACED RATIGAN IN A CONVENT WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO HAVE NO CONTACT WITH CHILDREN. Second, as soon as Finn learned that Ratigan was not obeying the orders to stay away from children. Again, the Diocese voluntarily contacted the authorities this second time as well.

It is a gross failure in justice, honesty and charity to pretend as though Finn was just as negligent as those of his fellow Bishops whose failures we know all too well. This case is hardly the same, and anyone who can't see that IS BLINDED BY THEIR OWN ARROGANCE AND UNGODLY RAGE.