PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers
One priest said Msgr. William J. Lynn treated victims of clergy sex abuse with compassion.
Another testified that Lynn pressed accused priests to enter treatment, and urged his bosses to order hospitalization for any who resisted.
A third noted that even regional vicars had more power than the secretary for clergy.
The priests took the stand Tuesday as the first witnesses called by the defense in the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial against Lynn, the former clergy secretary for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. His lawyers turned to each to bolster their contention that he was trying to remove sexually abusive priests but that he lacked the authority to do so.
Prosecutors, in turn, sought to use the testimony to suggest that Lynn – and sometimes the men around him – didn’t do enough to investigate abuse claims and protect children.
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