A member of Pope Francis' new child sex abuse panel is calling for the removal of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn. It's the first time a Catholic official is publicly and explicitly pushing for Finn's ouster.

Peter Saunders of London was tapped by Pope Francis to be on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He founded and heads a charity for abuse victims called NAPAC (The National Association for People Abused in Childhood).

"If we don't see real change, if we don't see the likes of Bishop Finn removed immediately...  then the committee will be a pointless exercise," Saunders told The Guardian.

Many pundits, journalists, abuse victims and concerned Catholics have advocated for Finn's removal. But this is the first time a church official has explicitly done so.  It's especially significant that Saunders has met with Pope Francis and was appointed to the Vatican abuse panel by Francis. (underlining as in original statement.)

But as Clohessy further noted:

There are two travesties here. First, it's a travesty when that Francis has done nothing to discipline or even denounce Finn. Second, it's a travesty that - in a world with thousands of Catholic bishops - no one in the Catholic hierarchy except Saunders, a lay person, has found the courage to publicly denounce Finn.

Let's put this as simply and clearly as we can: With lightening speed, Francis ousted a German bishop who mismanaged church money.

But with glacial speed, Francis ignores a bishop who was convicted of endangering children.

Indeed, Finn should have been gone a long time ago. It has been 2 ½ years since the Opus Dei Bishop was convicted by a Missouri court for failing to report suspected child abuse by a parish priest under his charge, has so far resisted calls for his resignation.  (Finn's priest was in fact, guilty, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.)

And as Clohessy noted, what makes the Finn debacle more puzzling is the speed with which Francis removed other troubling upper- echelon clergy. Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano -  a Paraguayan Opus Dei member accused of ongoing sexual abuse  and Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst , better known as the "Bishop of bling" whose ostentatious lifestyle was way out of synch with what is expected of church leaders.

When Francis ascended to the papacy, he appointed a blue ribbon committee intended to weed out sexual abuse by Catholic clerics. He appointed his trusted friend Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston to lead the new Vatican commission on abuse. Back in November 2014: O'Malley unequivocally stated of the Finn mess, "[it is] a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently."

Now, one of the Pope's committee members is expressing exasperation over non-action regarding Bishop Finn. As the newspaper The Guardian reported:

Peter Saunders, a British abuse survivor who sits on a new papal commission to protect children, credits Pope Francis for being vocal about the abuse scandals. But he said that proof of the church's seriousness in tackling the problem will be revealed by its action - or inaction - in cases like the one in Chile (more about that issue in a future post).

Saunders has also been critical of the church's handling of another case in Missouri, where Bishop Robert Finn has remained in power even after he was convicted of failing to report clerical child sex abuse .

"If we don't see real change, if we don't see the likes of Bishop Finn removed immediately and this case in Chile being resolved, then the committee will be a pointless exercise," Saunders told The Guardian.

And there's the rub:  The longer Pope Francis delays action, the more he loses credibility.