Robert Finn (bishop)

Robert William Finn (born April 2, 1953) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph from 2005 to 2015.

Finn was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on July 7, 1979. He served in various pastoral assignments in the archdiocese before being appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph by Pope John Paul II on March 9, 2004. He was consecrated a bishop on May 3, 2004.

Upon the retirement of Bishop Raymond Boland, Finn automatically succeeded him as Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph on May 24, 2005.

Finn's tenure as bishop was marked by controversy. In 2012, he was convicted of misdemeanor failure to report suspected child abuse. He was the first Catholic bishop in the United States to be convicted of such a charge. The conviction stemmed from an incident in 2007 where a priest in his diocese was found to have child pornography on his computer. Finn was placed on probation for two years.

Following a Vatican-ordered investigation into the diocese’s handling of clergy sex abuse cases, Pope Francis accepted Finn's resignation on April 21, 2015.