# Catholic Bishop Charged With Failure to Report Child Porn

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-bishop-charged-with-failure-to-report-child-porn/599692>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 14, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-bishop-charged-with-failure-to-report-child-porn/599692 "2011-10-14T23:48:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-bishop-charged-with-failure-to-report-child-porn/599692/1 "2011-10-14T23:48:14Z")

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Story [here.](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44907461/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/)

> [@](#):
>
> After receiving the principal’s concerns in 2010, Monsignor Robert Murphy, the diocese’s vicar general, spoke with Ratigan about setting boundaries with children. He then gave Finn a verbal summary of the concerns and his meeting with the priest.
> 
> .Last December, a computer technician found on Ratigan’s laptop hundreds of what he called “disturbing” images of children, most of them fully clothed with the focus on their crotch areas, and a series of pictures of a 2- to 3-year-old girl with her genitals exposed.
> 
> Diocese officials reported the photos to Murphy, who did not report them to authorities and instead called a police captain who is a member of the diocese’s independent review board and described a single photo of a nude child that was not sexual in nature.
> 
> Without viewing the photo, the captain said he was advised that although such a picture might meet the definition of child pornography, it probably wouldn’t be investigated or prosecuted. It was not until this May that Murphy told police Ratigan’s laptop had contained hundreds of photos.

I support this prosecution, and I only would add that I don’t understand why Monsignor Murphy was not also indicted.

Of course, if Bishop Finn was kept in the dark, then he should not be found guilty, but in light of the Church’s own guidelines he had an affirmative duty to be aware of what was happening, so I am perfectly comfortable with charging him and letting a trial determine if there’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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