Bevilacqua Is Assailed

Philadelphia Daily News
April 13, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/147276815.html

CARDINAL ANTHONY J. Bevilacqua broke civil and church laws when he ordered aides in 1994 to shred a list that identified dozens of Philadelphia-area priests suspected of molesting children, an expert on canon law and clergy sex abuse testified on Thursday.

"That was like obstructing justice cubed," the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle told a Common Pleas jury. "He's got a list of men who may have abused children, and he's going to shred it?"

The assertion thrust the late cardinal squarely into the spotlight for the first time in the landmark child-sex-abuse and endangerment trial against his former secretary for clergy, Monsignor William J. Lynn.

And although an attorney for Lynn strove to paint Bevilacqua as a bossy micromanager who dictated how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia handled abuse cases, Doyle wouldn't give Lynn a pass.

As a priest and canon lawyer, Doyle was the author of a groundbreaking 1985 study into sexual abuse by priests. He has since been a high-profile advocate for abuse victims.

His daylong testimony marked a change in tempo at the trial. For three weeks, jurors had endured a drumbeat of testimony about local priests who allegedly fondled, raped or tried to molest children. Prosecutors turned to Doyle to give them a broader perspective about the longtime practices and processes within the Catholic Church - and how Bevilacqua, Lynn and others may have applied or ignored them.