PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Local News
The child endangerment trial of the Rev. Monsignor William Lynn resumes in Philadelphia. He has the dubious distinction of being the first Roman Catholic Church official to be charged in the United States in connection with clerical sexual abuse.
While the 61-year-old priest himself has not been charged with sexually abusing children, he has been accused of protecting known pedophile priests from criminal prosecution by not reporting them to civil authorities and instead placing them in assignments where they still had access to children.
Defense attorneys maintain that Lynn, who served as secretary of the clergy from 1992 to 2004 and was responsible for investigating clerical sexual abuse, was just following orders of his two superiors, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and Cardinal Justin Rigali, former archbishops of Philadelphia. Bevilacqua, who was battling cancer, died Jan. 31, the day after a judge ruled that his deposition videotaped last November could be included in Lynn’s trial.
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.