Expert: Shredding Priest List "Obstruction Cubed"

One News Now
April 12, 2012

http://www.onenewsnow.com/AP/Search/US/Default.aspx?id=1576760

A trial expert calls it "obstruction of justice cubed" for a Roman Catholic archbishop in Philadelphia to have shredded a list of 35 active priests accused of molesting children.

Monsignor William Lynn says he prepared such a list in 1994 and gave it to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. The documents show that Bevilacqua had top aides destroy it.

The Rev. Thomas Doyle, an expert on Roman Catholic law, grew angry testifying about the destruction of the list at Lynn's child-endangerment trial Thursday.

Doyle says church law requires church officials to investigate the complaints. And he says the church should have sought out victims to offer pastoral care.

Lynn is the first Catholic church official in the U.S. charged with child endangerment. Prosecutors say he failed to protect children from suspected priest-predators.