Update (5:20 p.m.): Bishop Robert W. Finn has expressed "regret" about the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph's initial handling of the case. Finn released a statement on Friday afternoon.
Original Story (6 a.m.): Some stories make you question humanity. This is one of them. Shawn Ratigan, a priest at Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist in Independence, is accused of possessing up-skirt photos of young girls taken at the church and around the school.
Court documents say Ratigan's cache of child pornography was discovered
when he took his laptop in for work in mid-December 2010. However,
church officials didn't notify the authorities until last week (May 13).
Not exactly sure why it took the church five months to contact
authorities.
According to court records, a computer technician found multiple images of girls under the age of 12 -- mostly up-skirt photos (many clothed). However, one specific nude image of a girl's genitals was discovered. Ratigan had allegedly marked the image with the girl's name.
The tech returned the computer to the church and told them about the images. Church officials turned the computer over to the church diocese IT person for review.
On December 17, Ratigan was a no-show at the 8:30 a.m. mass. Church officials and EMTs found Ratigan unconscious in his closed garage with his motorcycle running. He'd also left a suicide note, apologizing to the church, the children and their families for the harm he'd caused. He was hospitalized and placed in psychiatric care.
The diocese copied the images found on the computer and gave the computer to Ratigan's family, who destroyed it.
Finally, on May 13, a disk with the images was given to detectives. Detectives determined that the images were taken by cell phone and digital cameras at locations in and around churches and schools associated with Ratigan.
Detectives also contacted a church in St. Joseph where Ratigan had previously worked. The church turned over a computer that Ratigan had used there and found similar images.
Several of the minors pictured have been identified and interviewed.
Ratigan's family also turned over several items to detectives, who discovered a CD in a Walgreens one-hour photo envelope. They found 14 images of child porn of a 3- to 4-year-old girl.
Ratigan was arrested Wednesday. He refused to speak with detectives. He's charged with three counts of possessing child pornography.
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It is gross. What is it peopls think a man does when he looks at porn. Sure not for education. If this man went unchecked he would have acted on it. He probably has and just didnt get caught.
Great reporting - another horrific story about the Catholic church's continued protection of pedophiles. Catholic priests just can't stop themselves, and bishops continuously protect them.
Law enforcement has to take over and throw the Bishop and all other complicit managers in jail.
If this happened at Chucky Cheese, and an employee had child porn pictures that he took of children inside Chucky Cheese, and the management hid the pictures and allowed the employee further access to small children, customers would boycott and have every manager thrown in jail.
We can't expect the Catholic church to rise to the standards of Chucky Cheese, but they should at least have to follow the basic laws of humanity and the laws of the land.
julie hess the great principle has a history of sex offenses also ask the public school she sooooo graciously retired from any parents want to come forward on this
Sympathy for a child rapist. You are such a Catholic sheep, and such a heartless human being.
it's not his job to know how to balance the legality of stealing a church computer and bringing it to the police versus informing the church. If he wasn't Catholic, he may not have known that the Catholic church has been covering up child rape for decades. The Catholic church does know that, but still doesn't care, and doesn't consider child rape to be that big of a deal, as this case continues to prove.
Why aren't Kansas City residents pushing for Bishop Finn
to be put in jail?
This is absolutely reckless child endangerment, hiding a
known pedophile, and putting him in a position where he would be around
children, even though he knew about it for over a year. We all know that Catholic priests have raped
over 10,000 children in the United States alone, and systematically covered it
up.
The Catholic church will lie to your face and say that
the problem is fixed, but Bishop Finn proves that they will still hide the
truth and leave children in danger. The
citizens of Kansas City should fight to put him in jail, even if Catholic
parents don't seem to care.
@da120cb73cb0a04a6bf22749b9f78e6b:disqus ... so where are you now that you want a civil dialogue? You engage in character assassination against me, insult me, but you block my reply. You have proved MY point it seems..
@ H3.. I have plenty to say to you, but you have blocked me from commenting. Obviously you are related to that Ratigan garbage.
Kansas, I do have mey head examined long as my insureance holds out. Its because I had one of these monsters use me like a sex toy, when I was just a baby. Hope that doesnt happen to any of your children.
Exactly! People act like this 45 year old priest just moved into a parish and decided he had an interest in young girls. There are other victims...and Don Farnan has always been a puppet for Bishop Finn....When do we stop allowing the fox to guard the hen house?
how about the letter priciple julie hess wrote may of 2010 but never followed up on shes as bad as him
He should have his penis removed for taking pictures? You need to have your head examined.
Anyone who has a desire to hurt or use children is infected with evil I can't even fathom myself. I can only continue to survive from it. And the Church has and always will try and cover evil rather then deal with it. I think men like this one need their penis removed
Dude, go take a seat over there.
Most HUMANS know not to sexually assault minors, no matter how they dress.
I totally agree Margaret. What is not getting reported in the press is that he was at St. Thomas More church in south KC before going to St. Joe. Why isnt that being reported? Why isnt anyone asking for their computers Ratigan had contact with? What isnt the priest Father Don Farnan at STM trying to contact and assist the police? I think EVERY person in the church that had any knowledge of this horrific cover up should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, no matter what their position is. It's time to make an example of them. It's time to take our church back and show them the parishoners have a zero tolerance and will NOT allow another child to be sacrificed. Why does everyone allow the Diocese and above make the decisions? Its ignorant!! This will never end till the parishoners demand it!!!
You are a complete god-damned idiot and one of the reasons these catholic criminals continue to get away with this sort of shit. They guy is a pervert and the church and diocese are criminals. Burn the church down with the "holy men" in it.
Got anything of constructive merit to say Commie Soviet? It seems that your view of everything is so narrow you could look through a keyhole with both eyes. Let me see if I can explain this to you. NO ONE is sticking up for what this man did. They are saying he USED TO BE a great guy and then he did this. I am a 45 year old male who has been molested by a priest and 3, count them 3, male relatives as a child. I don't hate the church any more than I hate the rest of my relatives for what a select few did to me. You need to get over it. You will be a bitter, raving useless human until you do. No one is impressed or won over to your side with your nonsensical ravings. I am guessing you never finished high school and have a problem with police officers. I'm also guessing that you are going to respond to this with nothing but swearing, shouting and nonsense, thus proving my point.
Just for the record, KC, I don't disagree with most of what you're saying. The priest is solely responsible for what he did. He should be punished severely, especially since he was in a position of authority over the children. The Catholic church has a stupid system of restrictions. Priests and nuns should be able to marry and 99% of all these problems would stop immediately. My issue with your posts is the fact that you come across looking and sounding like an ignorant drunk hick. Get over your past issues or let them control your whole life. If you let them control you, that means the people who have molested you win. Molesting is about control. If they control your life, they are still molesting you. Get help.
Got anything of constructive merit to say Commie Soviet? It seems that your view of everything is so narrow you could look through a keyhole with both eyes. Let me see if I can explain this to you. NO ONE is sticking up for what this man did. They are saying he USED TO BE a great guy and then he did this. I am a 45 year old male who has been molested by a priest and 3, count them 3, male relatives as a child. I don't hate the church any more than I hate the rest of my relatives for what a select few did to me. You need to get over it. You will be a bitter, raving useless human until you do. No one is impressed or won over to your side with your nonsensical ravings. I am guessing you never finished high school and have a problem with police officers. I'm also guessing that you are going to respond to this with nothing but swearing, shouting and nonsense, thus proving my point.
He's not blaming the victims. He's saying "protect your children in the first place." Moron
Correction: Star Wars was influenced by the messianic epic story template, which appears in every theology/mythology. Yes, there are a lot of parallels to the stories of the bible, they are not exclusive to just that religion. The same story template appears for Ghanish in Hinduism, or for Buddha. Hell it even appears in celtic, norse, and roman/greek mythology.
you are kidding...SO, you think people should dress like Priests and Nuns if they are going to be around Clergy???
You are a sick mother fucker...This is the real Shawn Ratigan and just because no one has come forward there is still a chance it went further then pictures...But, even if it was just pics, that is horrible and disgusting and it still violated these children's rights....If he had any sense of right he would kill himself correctly next time....
You must have trouble reading...They were all under 12...Damn parents letting their children be children...I mean really they should have garbage bags over their bodies and they should be told how bad they are for getting the priest all hot and bothered with their little bodies...Yes, those little girls should be held accountable for getting the Priest to take pics of them in their underoos....You flipping MORON.....
That is so disgusting!! Child porn of a 3-4 year old girl..really dude? I hope someone sticks a pineapple up this disgusting man's ass.
So, I have to wonder why the computer tech didn't bring the computer right to the police, rather than bringing it back to the church.
I agree. I can't bring myself to go into a chruch anymore. The Ryan report made me sick and the investigation by the Vatican finished me. Blame it on the culture of the 60's and 70's. Give me a fucking break.
It's not the same as a serfdom, Crusty Bastard. Catholics hold the money within the church, and they have power (if they choose). If Catholics would collectively withhold tithing and instead donate those funds to child protective services agencies, the church would get the message. The problem is that most Catholics want to hide from what is happening rather than use their power to communicate with church leadership.
The Roman Catholic Church is an absolute monarchy, not a responsive representative democracy.
The bishop and archbishop are a minor nobles and all are subjects of the pope-king. The subject's duties are payment of tribute and obedience, not making demands. The nobility will do their subject's thinking for them.
That's why it always amuses me when some Catholics imagine they're bringing "change from within." No, you aren't. The Vatican holds your opinions in the same regard a feudal king regarded the opinions of a serf.
The Church doesn't even hide it: they actually tell people to their faces they regard them as livestock. "The flock," they call you. People exist to be fleeced and produce more livestock for the church's noble successors to fleece.
That their shepherds might take the occasional lamb seems to be regarded by the Church as an acceptable cost of doing such business.
"Girls under age 12" were Fr. Shawn's interest. Not "scantily clad teenagers."
Teenagers were evidently way too old. Ugh.
A demonic attack on a good and idealistic man? The pedophile is the real victim?
By encouraging just this sort of irrationality, Holy Mother Church encourages the faithful to keep supplying their own children to satisfy the appetites of the Church's longstanding sex-predator conspiracy.
I think I'd entrust a child with a person randomly selected at the bus station before I'd entrust a child to a Catholic priest.
Not saying it's ok to do what he did; I'm saying we need to acknowledge that they're sexual human beings and stop pretending they aren't. Let them marry
You are noticeably absent from the debate now you fucking jackass. You are obviously part of the coverup.
Had he really wanted to kill himself, he wouldn't have waited until just before he was expected at the church to try it. 4 hours earlier he could have done it. He did it for sympathy from people like you. Sounds like you were being 'groomed' right along with the children. I will pray for you.
A continued silence from the press and blogs to go beyond expressing disgust to call for the removal of the Bishop.
I am just astounded that this man could hear confessions and go on doing what he was doing. The hypocrisy of the RCC is beyond comprehension. Pro-Life? Pro-child? Bull$hit!!!!! The church is pro-sperm and pro-egg. They don't give a rat's butt about children.
I just wrote a scathing letter to the bishop and archbishop calling for Bishop Finn's resignation. He is a disgrace to the church. By covering up this incident, he has ensured that every priest's integrity is called into question. How can we trust our priests if we know church leadership will choose to hide their crimes rather than report them? Just FYI - not sure how long this will be up, but on the St. Patrick's church website, it still encourages those interested in their children's baptism or first communion to call Father Shawn Ratigan. I'm just saying -- they might want to take that down. Another website is touting how much fun Fr. Shawn had on the boy scout outing. Yikes.
Be sure to go read the bishop's statement.
So Bishop, in your arrogance you thought you had the whole story. If
you had turned the evidence over to the professionals--the police
department--they would have found out very quickly that Ratigan's
perversions went beyond the few pictures you knew about.
You, Bishop, have the same mindset my teenagers have. You think you know everything. BUT YOU EFFIN' DON'T.
It makes me sad that I have left my Catholic Church for good, because of a bunch of morons like you.
It took five months before the information was handed over to the authorities? Another cover up and missed opportunity for 'transparency" for the Catholic church.
This is totally ridiculous on the diocese's part. First of all, theh try to cover up a major child porn case. Then someone finds about this priest, and tells the kc police. And then you fess up to the information and blame this ratigan's distgusting problem on our society. But the most outragous thing is that society doesn't think child porn is right, therefore it's not society's fault and it's definately the church's and the priest's problem.
Tonight I will pray to your gawd that you choke to death on your on fucking vomit.
I hate it when someone "sins" that, to fanatical Xtians (or any other religious group), it isn't the person doing the immoral acts that is to blame. It is "the devil"! Come on peeps, take some individual responsibility. This guy should be locked up. Why not display some compassion in regards to other people that have been caught with a crime (no matter how small). Do you think the same of an African American who was caught with a little baggie of marijuana? It was the devil then too? Right?
Yeah, whatever. He was only a "priest" to get after kids. He should be hung by the balls. Don't delude yourself that he was a great guy- he wasn't. He's a predatory pedophile. No cure. Kill him.
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