Indeed, Finn should have been gone a long time ago. It has been 2 & 1/2 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.)

The priest in question was Fr. Shawn Ratigan (his criminal behavior is discussed below).

And as Clohessy [David Clohessy, the St. Louis, Director of SNAP, (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)] 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."

Needing to be urgently a ddressed , indeed! The sexual abuse of children by predatory clergy is an open wound that has festered by indifference, cover up and denial. Vatican lethargy in the Finn case increased suspicion that nothing has changed. If the Catholic Church is to have credibility about reform in this area justice must not only be fair but swift and penalties certain.

As the National Catholic Reporter recently put it :

Finn also violated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, commonly called the Dallas Charter, which the U.S. bishops themselves wrote to guide their response to the violation of children by clergy.

Upholding the Dallas Charter is the one clear signal the bishops can use to ensure deeply skeptical Catholics, not to mention the general public, that they have broken with the despicable practices of the past, when they hid and covered up sexual predators. The Dallas Charter is an imperfect document, but it is the only yardstick the bishops have for measuring their integrity on this issue. That is why Finn became the test case of church resolve to hold bishops accountable.

As well as:

Bishops overseeing the crisis dismissed themselves for decades from any responsibility in the scandal. It was a brazen attempt to sidestep the mountains of evidence revealing that they had long ignored the plight of child victims while engaging in elaborate schemes to hide the heinous behavior of thousands of priests. Any lack of fairness is the result of nothing more or less than the clerical culture that looked first to protect itself and its privileges. Only when forced by legal processes and public pressure did bishops deign to consider the deep wounds inflicted on the most vulnerable in the Catholic family.

And what of Finn's defenders among the Catholic Right ? They include Bill Donohue (apparently operating with the blessing of Cardinal Timothy Dolan). Others in t his group comprised a veritable Who's Who of the neoconservative Catholic Right -- Domino's Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan; Opus Bono Sacerdotii (OBS) (BishopAccountability.org describes OBS co-founders Joseph Maher and Paul Barron as "members of Legatus." Based in Monaghan's hometown of Detroit, Michigan, many of the key members of Legatus are also affiliated with other Monahan-founded or funded organizations); and of course, Donohue's Catholic League whose board of advisers besides Monaghan, includes such leading theocons as Hadley Arkes, Mary Ann Glendon, Robert P. George, Michael Novak and George Weigel.

This cabal (which rarely expresses concern for the victims) lashed out at the Kansas City Star newspaper for its reporting on the Finn affair, as well as victims rights organization as well as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Astonishingly, Donohue recently continued his attacks on the newspaper and praised the disgraced Bishop:

... not only is Bishop Finn a bishop in good standing in the Catholic Church, he is a holy man who has done a magnificent job in securing bright and able men to the priesthood. Indeed, the number of men he has galvanized to become priests makes Finn the envy of bishops in much larger dioceses throughout the nation.

But that is not the end of it. On April 21, 2015 Donohue issued t wo press releases. The first , titled, " Bishop Robert Finn Resigns " was an exercise in ch ut zpah. Incredibly, the Catholic League president declared, "... no child was ever touched or abused by Ratigan. " He also claimed, " Bishop Finn did not take a cavalier attitude toward his misconduct. If he had, Ratigan's problem would have been ignored altogether, counting on the fact that no one ever called his office saying Ratigan had abused his (sic) child. "

Let's recap events a bit. Finn' s conviction resulted from his knowledge of the related crimes of Fr. Ratigan who had previously pleaded guilty in Federal Court to four counts of producing child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography. As I reported here and here, Bishop Finn had constructive knowledge of Ratigan's improper touching of young girls and possession of child pornography. Finn not only knew or had good reason to suspect Ratigan's crimes, but had he acted, he would have prevented other crimes against children under his pastoral care.

Let me repeat, "Ratigan's improper touching of young girls and possession of child pornography." Only someone with the audacity of Bill Donohue could claim, "... no child was ever touched or abused by Ratigan. "

In the second press release of the day, "Foes of Bishop Finn Rejoice," blatantly attempts to shift the focus of child abuse to church politics. Indeed, nowhere in this statement his Ratigan's or Finn' s troubling behavior ever mentioned ; it is purely a vendetta piece.

Finally, one further question needs to be answered: on the issue of child abuse, can the Church afford to have two such polar opposite opinions coming from its hierarchy? There is a serious disconnect when Pope Francis and Cardinal Sean O'Malley understand the need to remove the likes of Bishop Finn -- but do nothing to chastise those who defended him by of obfuscation -- especially Bill Donohue and Cardinal Dolan.