PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers
Msgr. William J. Lynn was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in state prison by a judge who said he turned a blind eye while “monsters in clerical garb” sexually abused children, devastating families and shaking the Catholic Church across Philadelphia and beyond.
Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said she believed Lynn was once the kind and selfless parish priest that his supporters so passionately described. But as the aide whom Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua tapped to investigate clergy sex abuse, Lynn chose to protect the church over victims, she said.
“You knew full well what was right, Msgr. Lynn, but you chose wrong,” she told him.
The sentence, the first for a Catholic leader for enabling clergy sex abuse, fell just short of the maximum seven-year term Philadelphia prosecutors had sought. It was hailed by victims and advocates who had complained that church officials long eluded justice for accommodating or concealing priests’ attacks on children.
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