First US Catholic Senior Official Convicted In Abuse Coverup

[FSTargetDrone]

Found guilty, gets 3-6 years:

Posted: Tue, Jul. 24, 2012, 5:39 AM

Msgr. Lynn sentenced to three to six years in prison

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Msgr. William J. Lynn was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in state prison Tuesday for child endangerment by a judge who said he turned a blind eye while "monsters in clerical garb" sexually abused children and devastated the church and community.

"You knew full well what was right, Monsignor, but you chose wrong," Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina told him.

The punishment capped a two-hour hearing and a three-month landmark trial, the first for a Catholic church official accused of enabling child-sex abuse. It fell just short of the maximum term that Philadelphia prosecutors sought, but was far more severe than the probation or county jail term that Lynn's lawyers had argued.

Lynn told the judge that he was sorry for his "failings" during the 12 years he was in charge of managing priests' assignments and investigating clergy-sex abuse claims for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He repeated his claim that he did his best as clergy secretary,

"But the fact is, my best was not good enough - and for that I'm truly sorry," he said.

Lynn, 61,has been jailed since his June 22 conviction.

His sentencing followed an unprecedented three-month trial that exposed decades of child-sex abuse by Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, and showed how church leaders sometimes shuffled accused clerics to hide the misconduct from the public.

As the secretary for clergy to Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, Lynn spent a dozen years managing area priests' assignments and investigating claims of misconduct, including allegations of child-sex abuse.

A jury convicted him of child endangerment for allowing Edward Avery, a former parish priest, to remain in active ministry in the mid-1990s after learning that Avery had once molested a minor. The jury acquitted him of two other counts, including a charge that he conspired with church leaders and Avery to endanger children.

Avery, defrocked six years ago, pleaded guilty in March to charges that he sexually assaulted an altar boy at St. Jerome Church in Northeast Philadelphia in 1999.

In testimony at his own trial, Lynn maintained that he did his best - and much did more than his predecessors - to isolate suspect priests. But he said he was hampered by church policies and a lack of authority.

He had arranged for Avery to be removed as pastor of a Mount Airy parish in 1992 and hospitalized for evaluation after a medical student came forward to say the priest molested him in the late 1970s. Avery denied the allegation, but Lynn still labeled him as "guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor" on a confidential list of suspected and confirmed pedophile priests he compiled for Bevilacqua in 1994.

Avery was later returned to ministry and limited to work as a chaplain at Nazareth Hospital and expected to be monitored by an "aftercare" team. But he was allowed to live in the rectory and celebrate Mass at the Northeast Philadelphia parish where he later molested the boy.

Lynn's lawyers argued that only the cardinal had the authority to move or remove priests.

In a motion to the judge last week, they urged her to consider a sentence of probation or less than a year in county jail, contending that Lynn had already endured an unprecedented amount of shame and vilification.

"The last ten years of his life were a time of reflection, penance and rehabilitation," lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Jeffrey Lindy wrote.

They also asked that he be released on bail while they appeal the verdict.

Lynn left the clergy office in 2004 to become pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown. He was suspended from that post after his arrest last year. More than 300 of his supporters submitted letters to the judge in advance of the sentencing.

Prosecutors from the office of District Attorney Seth Williams asked Sarmina to impose the maximum term, arguing that Lynn's crimes were more severe than the typical child endangerment felony. They said his actions - and inaction - as clergy secretary ultimately impacted thousands of Catholics across the region.

This has been fairly big news around the Philadelphia area. Back in the early 1980s, Lynn was one of the pastors at the Catholic school I attended but I barely remember him.

[Ziggy Stardust]

It will be interesting to compare this sentence with those meted out to the officials at Penn State for their own cover-ups.

[Stark]

It's pretty bizarre that the church maintains its own list of pedophile priests and just doesn't bother telling anyone.

[fgalkin]

It's pretty bizarre that the church maintains its own list of pedophile priests and just doesn't bother telling anyone.

Well, if they tell anyone, they might actually want to punish these people and we certainly can't have that!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Spoonist]

It's pretty bizarre that the church maintains its own list of pedophile priests and just doesn't bother telling anyone.

This was due to ratzinger's policies regarding confessions when he was the enforcer for the CDF.

If you were a molester, then if you made sure to confess to the person above you they would be hampered by Canon law to report it to the authorities in the country.

This made the internal lists necessary, so that you regardless of confessions could track them.

There are plenty of cases in us and ireland where a priest in good standing, suddenly go on the list without anything prior - so probably a confession.

[weemadando]

Saw the DAY talking outside court about how the sentence was less time than he'd locked away evidence for.