PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Adelaide Now (Australia)
A WITNESS in a landmark priest-abuse cover-up trial in Philadelphia described feeling “helpless and trapped” as a 13-year-old, because her priest was fondling her when she worked weekends at the rectory.
The woman says she didn’t tell anyone for years, and later learned the same priest had fondled her younger sisters.
The woman testified on the fourth day of the child-endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the longtime secretary for clergy in Philadelphia. Lynn is the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. charged with child endangerment for allegedly leaving predators in jobs around children.
Defense lawyers say Lynn took orders from two archbishops. No other church administrators are charged.
The priest who allegedly fondled the woman at a suburban parish in Bristol around 1970 was removed from ministry after the church sex-abuse scandal broke in 2004. By then, he had admitted to an archdiocesan review board his “longstanding habit” of fondling girls’ breasts, according to a 2005 grand jury report. The Associated Press is not naming him because he was never charged.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.