PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Morning Call
By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call
2:49 p.m. EDT, May 14, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — A former attorney for the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese testified Monday that top church officials including retired Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen lied to him about a list of priests suspected of sexually abusing children.
Tim Coyne, who served as the church’s general counsel, said a prosecutor asked him in 2004, in the midst of a grand jury investigation of sexual abuse by Philadelphia-area priests, to track down the list of 35 suspected child abusers Monsignor William Lynn had produced in 1994.
Coyne said he contacted five church leaders including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua; Cullen, who was the cardinal’s top aide; and Bishop Joseph Cistone, who is now head of the Saginaw, Mich. diocese, but the effort was unsuccessful.
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