Vatican announces resignation of Bishop Robert Finn

The Vatican has announced the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St Joseph.

In a statement released earlier today, the Vatican said that “the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert W Finn from the pastoral governance” of his diocese. The statement did not name a successor.

Bishop Finn was convicted in September 2012 of failing to report an accusation of child abuse. He waited five months before reporting that explicit images of young girls were found on the computer of one of his priests. He is, to date, the only US bishop to be found guilty of such a charge.

As a result of the conviction, Bishop Finn served a two-year suspended sentence and the diocese was fined $1.1 million.

The Vatican had previously been criticised for failing to remove the bishop from his post. Yesterday, Marie Collins, an abuse survivor and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told CruxNow, she could not understand why Bishop Finn had remained in his position.

“I cannot understand how Bishop Finn is still in position, when anyone else with a conviction that he has could not run a Sunday school in a parish,” she said.

“He wouldn’t pass a background check. I don’t know how anybody like that could be left in charge of a diocese.”