PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Columbus Dispatch
By Erik Eckholm and Jon Hurdle
The New York Times
Tuesday March 27, 2012
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.
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