For immediate release: Tuesday, August 9, 2011

SNAP calls for Church officials to face criminal charges in connection with Fr. Shawn Ratigan

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director of SNAP (314.503.0003, [email protected])

We're grateful that this shrewd child predator faces new, tougher charges. But we're disappointed that, so far at least, Fr. Ratigan's church supervisors aren't facing criminal charges.

It's clear that Bishop Robert Finn and his top staff deceived the public and hid the evidence of Fr. Ratigan's crimes for months, further endangering innocent kids. It's less clear whether law enforcement has the courage to go up the ladder and pursue Fr. Ratigan's corrupt Catholic supervisors who concealed his crimes.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 22 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])

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Federal grand jury indicts Catholic priest

Posted: Aug 09, 2011 4:07 PM CDTUpdated: Aug 09, 2011 4:23 PM CDT

By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manage

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a Catholic priest in connection with possessing, producing and attempting to produce child pornography.

The priest with the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was previously indicted in Clay County on similar charges. However, the 13 federal charges against Shawn Ratigan, 45, are considered more serious.

The alleged victims range in age from 2 to 12 years old, federal prosecutors say. Prosecutors also allege that Ratigan committed some of the crimes while on church property, including in a church choir.

Ratigan was indicted in May with violating Missouri child pornography laws. Prosecutors allege that Ratigan took lewd pictures of young girls, which police say, in court documents, they found uploaded on his personal computer and a church computer.

Ratigan has pleaded not guilty to the allegations in Clay County.

The priest is accused of taking nude pictures of a 3-year-old girl and a 4-year-old girl, according to court documents.

In December, Ratigan took his personal laptop in for repairs and a computer technician discovered pornographic images of girls on the laptop, including pictures of girls' vaginas, according to court documents.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

To read previous stories, click here, here, here and here.

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