PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Twice in 1993, Msgr. William J. Lynn received letters from local Catholics worried about a leave of absence taken by their pastor, the Rev. Edward V. Avery.
As secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Lynn had recommended Avery for confidential treatment because Avery had been accused of molesting a teen in the 1970s.
But his letters to two of Avery’s parishioners, read aloud today to jurors at Lynn’s trial, praised the priest and urged them to disregard any unflattering whispers they might have heard.
“Let me assure you, that is what they are: rumors,” Lynn wrote one woman. “Father Avery had requested a health leave from Cardinal Bevilacqua, which was granted.”
The letters were among dozens of confidential memos and documents about Avery that prosecutors introduced as they opened the second day of the conspiracy and child-sex abuse trial against Lynn.
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