PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers
Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua broke civil and church laws when he ordered aides in 1994 to shred a list identifying dozens of Philadelphia-area priests suspected of molesting children, an expert on canon law and clergy sex abuse testified Thursday.
“That was like obstructing justice cubed,” the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle told a Common Pleas Court 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, Msgr. William J. Lynn.
And though 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.
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.