PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Wall Street Journal
By PETER LOFTUS
PHILADELPHIA—A Roman Catholic monsignor was sentenced Tuesday to as many as six years in prison for allowing a priest suspected of sexual misconduct with a minor to have continued contact with children.
A jury last month found Monsignor William Lynn guilty of child endangerment. The verdict marked the first time a senior U.S. church official was convicted of a criminal charge related to allegations of covering up sexual abuse of minors by other priests. Msgr. Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, a job that included investigating abuse allegations lodged against priests in the diocese.
Monsignor William Lynn, shown in June, was sentenced to six years in prison for allowing a priest suspected of sexual misconduct with a minor to have continued contact with children.
Msgr. Lynn’s three- to six-year prison sentence is another milestone in a sex-abuse scandal that has shaken the Church in the U.S. and elsewhere for the past decade. Victims’ groups heralded his conviction as an opening for law-enforcement officials in other cities to look anew at whether other high-ranking church officials could be held criminally liable for looking the other way when priests under their charge were accused of abuse.
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