Missouri priest to plead guilty in child porn case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest in Kansas City is expected to plead guilty Thursday in a federal child pornography case that also led to charges against the diocese bishop for failing to report suspected child abuse.

The Rev. Shawn Ratigan, 46, had been scheduled for trial later this month. Ratigan was charged in Clay County with three counts of child pornography in May 2011 after police received a flash drive from the priest's computer that contained hundreds of images of children, most of them clothed, with the focus on their crotch areas. Prosecutors alleged he photographed girls, sometimes under their skirts, in and around churches where he had worked in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Ratigan was indicted last year with 13 counts of producing, possessing and attempting to produce child porn.

The case opened old wounds for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which in 2008 agreed to pay 47 clergy abuse victims a total of $10 million and promised to train its priests about sexual abuse awareness and to report any suspicions that children were being placed in danger.

The case also led to misdemeanor criminal charges against the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn — the highest-ranking Catholic official in the U.S. to be charged with shielding an abusive priest — for failing to report suspected child abuse to the state. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial in September.

Ratigan was an acting priest whose behavior was reported to diocese officials in May 2010, seven months before hundreds of disturbing images were found on his laptop and a full year before church officials reported him to police.

Instead of reporting Ratigan to the state Division of Family Services, as required under Missouri law, Finn sent the priest out of state for a psychological examination, then ordered him to stay at the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, a facility in Independence, where he wouldn't be around children and could say Mass for the sisters.

Finn also ordered Ratigan to avoid contact with children. Later, after the diocese received reports Ratigan had attended a St. Patrick's Day parade and a child's birthday party at the invitation of the child's parents, Finn ordered that police be given copies of the photos recovered from Ratigan's laptop.

After Ratigan was charged with child pornography, Finn apologized for how he had handled the situation.

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Boston priest arrested on child pornography charges

BOSTON (Reuters) - A South Boston priest was charged on Wednesday with possessing and distributing child pornography using a computer in his parish's rectory, authorities said.

Andrew J. Urbaniak was arraigned in South Boston District Court on one count of possession of child pornography and one charge of distributing images of a child in the nude, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Police arrested Urbaniak, 39, at Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Polish church in the Archdiocese of Boston, on Tuesday.

After obtaining a search warrant, detectives seized Urbaniak's computer, where pornographic images of girls between the ages of 8 and 10 were found, according to the Boston Police Department.

The district attorney's office said that detectives had been investigating Urbaniak's activities on the Internet, observing files with names such as "pre-teen," "pedo" and "lolitas," hosted by an IP address linked to Urbaniak's computer at the parish's rectory. When they recovered his computer, it appeared to be in the process of sharing and downloading files.

"Troopers downloaded one suspect file and found it to contain a sexually explicit photograph of a child who appeared to be under the age of 14," the district attorney's office said.

The Archdiocese of Boston said Urbaniak had been placed on administrative leave. It said his provincial superior at his religious order in Poland had been informed, and that Urbaniak would not allowed to function as a priest in the archdiocese.

The archdiocese said in a statement that it was "fully cooperating with law enforcement.

"The Church prays for all those impacted by these events and is committed to providing for the pastoral care of the parish during this difficult time," it said.

Urbaniak, ordained in Poland in 1998, had been at Our Lady of Czestochowa since September 2008, said Kellyanne Dignan, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

The parish, which offers mass in English and Polish, is served by Franciscan friars. Urbaniak is listed on the church's website as part of the pastoral staff.

"He's a very decent man charged with very indecent circumstances," said Urbaniak's lawyer Jeffrey Denner.

Police said they were continuing their investigation.

Urbaniak was being held on $10,000 cash bail. Denner said he would be released on bail by Thursday.

Once released, Urbaniak will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device and surrender his passport. He is barred from Internet use and is to have no contact with children younger than 16.

(Reporting by Joseph O'Leary; editing by Ros Krasny and Richard Chang)

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KC priest to plead guilty in child porn case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City priest accused of producing and possessing child pornography is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court to at least some of the charges against him.

The Rev. Shawn Ratigan was charged last year with 13 federal child pornography counts and three in Clay County after a computer technician discovered hundreds of troubling images on the 46-year-old priest's laptop in December 2010.

He pleaded not guilty but a change of plea hearing was scheduled in federal court for Thursday.

Jackson County prosecutors charged Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph with failing to report suspected child abuse to the state, a misdemeanor.

Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial in September.

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