PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Irish Central
By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, July 25, 2012
US Catholic clergyman Monsignor William Lynn has been sentenced to three to six years in jail for covering up child sex abuse by priests in Philadelphia.
Lynn is the most senior U.S. cleric convicted in the church’s decades-long sex abuse scandal.
NBC reports that the sentence which was handed down by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina was less than the maximum penalty of seven years in prison for Lynn’s conviction on a single count of child endangerment.
The judge said: “The sentence is meant to punish Lynn for protecting monsters in clerical garb who molested children … to destroy the souls of children, to whom you turned a hard heart.” …
Commentator Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks priest-abuse cases, told NBCPhiladelphia.com: “I believe that what Lynn did was done by just about every diocese.
“In most cases, I think the vicar general was well informed, and also the bishop.”
“More than 500 U.S. priests have now been convicted of abuse but Lynn’s three-month trial shows just how hard it is to demonstrate collusion.”
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