MISSOURI: Catholic Diocese Ordered To Turn Over Documents About Abuses

A Missouri judge has ordered the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City to turn over internal documents about sexual abuses by priests. The diocese had fought the disclosure of the documents, claiming they were protected by attorney-client privilege.

Jackson County Circuit Judge John M. Torrence, who is overseeing a case against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese, also said in a ruling Wednesday that the diocese must turn over documents from the independent investigation into the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan that the diocese commissioned. Ratigan has pleaded not guilty to state and federal child pornography charges and remains jailed. Finn and the diocese are charged with misdemeanor failure to report suspected abuse to the state after learning of suspected child pornography on Ratigan's computer. Finn has acknowledged learning about the photos in December 2010, six months before Ratigan was arrested. The trial is scheduled for September.

RELATED: Two weeks ago a Philadelphia jury convicted Monsignor William Lynn of shielding the crimes of pedophile priests. It was the first such conviction of a high-profile Catholic official who had not committed sexual abuses himself.