Bill Donohue comments on a petition drive against Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

Approximately 100,000 persons have signed a petition demanding the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn. It’s a phony exercise.

The petition is found on the website of change.org, home to mostly left-wing activists. Anyone can sign it—you don’t have to be Catholic or from Finn’s diocese. For example, almost 7,400 signatures were sent to the diocese, and all but approximately 150 were from outside the area. Of the signatories online, activists from foreign countries have signed. In short, there is no grassroots rebellion against Bishop Finn.

We know who Bishop Finn’s enemies are: the Kansas City Star and the National Catholic Reporter (both are located in Kansas City, Missouri). They are the real source behind this phony petition drive: Both have been beating the drum calling for Finn to resign. It is not child sexual abuse that angers them, it is where it takes place and under whose purview it is.

There has been an ongoing story in the Orthodox Jewish community of rampant child sexual abuse, intimidation of victims, and a refusal to cooperate with the authorities, yet the Star has never covered this issue and the Reporter has largely ignored it (both publications carry national stories, not just local ones).

Similarly, at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota, child rapists abound and kids are being murdered, yet neither the Star nor the Reporter have anything to say about it. That’s because they are too busy focusing on twisted clergy who take crotch-shot pictures of children fully clothed.

For the past decade, the most important goal of anti-Catholics has been to bring down a bishop. That’s what is behind this petition drive.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Two days ago, I issued a news release stating I would pursue an investigation of the handling of a whistle-blowing case involving rampant child sexual abuse at Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota. I did. Dr. Michael R. Tilus was punished for blowing the whistle. Upon review, the reprimand has been rescinded and his scheduled promotion will go forward. Below is an excerpt of my letter to Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, director of the Indian Health Service:

In my role as president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I have seen what happens when child sexual abuse is not handled properly. Just as I detest child sexual abuse when it occurs with impunity in the Catholic community, I detest it when it happens in other communities as well.

What is going on at Spirit Lake Indian Reservation is a disgrace, but what is even more indefensible is the way Dr. Tilus was initially treated: he was punished for blowing the whistle on those who failed for years to do their job. Instead of being commended, he was condemned.

On August 1, I said I would call for an investigation of this matter. Indeed, in the past two days I contacted several persons in Washington who work for senators about this matter. They were helpful, but now that Dr. Tilus has been treated justly, they may be less inclined to spend more time on this issue. But from where I am sitting, justice must still be done.

Specifically, I would like to know what measures have been taken against those involved in this unseemly chapter. Dr. Candelaria Martin is mentioned as the person who levied the punishment, and did so on grounds that are outrageous. Has she been disciplined?

Though Senator John Barrasso’s office was not one of the ones I contacted following my statement of August 1, I will let him know now of my ongoing concerns about this serious matter.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Child sexual abuse is out-of-control at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Instead of checking the problem, the Obama administration has decided to punish the whistle-blower, Dr. Michael R. Tilus, director of behavioral health at the Health Care Center on the reservation. According to the New York Times, he has been reprimanded, reassigned, barred from promotion for two years, and may lose his professional license. These are the conditions:

• a 2-month-old baby girl died in July 2012 after tribal officials received warnings of child abuse
• last year a 9-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother were found dead, raped and sodomized inside their father’s home
• foster children have been sent to homes where registered sex offenders live
• a teenage girl who was sexually abused was placed in a tribal home where she was then raped
• the tribe hired a convicted felon as a child case worker
• a one-year old child covered with 100 wood ticks was discovered by a social worker yet was not taken to a hospital
• foster children have been illegally removed from homes and then assigned to new ones without conducting a safety check
• mandated background checks are not made by the tribe before placing foster children in new homes
• monthly visits by the tribe to check on children in foster care are not being made
• American Indians are 9 percent of North Dakota’s population but Indian children constitute nearly 30 percent of the state’s child abuse victims

There is no outcry coming from those who are quick to condemn the Catholic Church. We are pursuing several avenues of redress and will not allow this issue to die.