Senior Priest on Trial

By Erik Eckholm and Jon Hurdle
Columbus Dispatch
March 27, 2012

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2012/03/27/senior-priest-on-trial.html

The Rev. James J. Brennan

Monsignor William J. Lynn

The landmark trial of a senior official of the Philadelphia Archdiocese who is accused of shielding priests who sexually abused children and reassigning them to unwary parishes began yesterday with prosecutors charging that the official "paid lip service to child protection and protected the church at all costs."

Monsignor William J. Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic supervisor in the country to be tried on felony charges of endangering children and conspiracy — not on allegations that he molested children himself, but that he protected suspect priests and reassigned them to jobs where they continued to rape, fondle or otherwise abuse boys and girls.

One of Lynn's lines of defense was indicated in an opening statement when his lawyers suggested that he had acted responsibly and reported allegations of abuse to higher officials, including Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, who died in January.

The trial promises to further roil the 1.5 million-member Philadelphia Archdiocese, which was convulsed by grand jury reports in 2005 and 2011 alleging that it had not responded forcefully to dozens of credible abuse complaints and had allowed known offenders to have continued contact with children.

From 1992 to 2004, Lynn, who maintains he is innocent, was secretary of the clergy in the archdiocese, directing priests' job assignments and handling complaints about their behavior.

An assistant district attorney, Jacqueline Coelho, told the jury that Lynn had repeatedly played down credible reports of child abuse, stashing them away in secret files.

"The victims are met with skepticism, and the priests are believed at all costs," Coelho said in a 58-minute opening statement in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

As the trial began, Lynn, sitting between two lawyers and dressed in a black suit with a clerical collar, answered "not guilty" to all charges. He could face up to 28 years in prison if convicted of the two counts of endangerment and two counts of conspiracy.

Lynn is being tried together with a priest, the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, who is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996, after Lynn failed to act on complaints about Brennan. Brennan also pleaded not guilty.

The trial is expected to last at least two months.