PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
CHRISTINE M. FLOWERS, DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST
POSTED: Friday, January 3, 2014
SETH WILLIAMS says he’s “disgusted” by the Pennsylvania Superior Court’s decision reversing the child endangerment conviction of Monsignor William Lynn. Fair enough. He’s probably a tad peeved that his grand experiment in statutory interpretation, one which ignored the meaning of “ex post facto” in an effort to catch a priest, fell apart. He is apparently “disgusted” that a man who was charged with aiding and abetting the abuse of children gamed the legal system.
Well, let me take a moment to tell you what leaves me “disgusted.” I am “disgusted” at the continuation of a show trial that was flawed at the outset and which exploited the public’s legitimate anger at the evil crimes committed against children by a minority of Catholic men. I am also “disgusted” at the hypocrisy of those who seek justice by embracing injustice.
Monsignor Lynn is not an example of profound moral courage. He could have gone outside the chain of command and broken the creeping, deadly silence that protected perverted creatures and exposed innocent children to unspeakable harm. No one – not even those who personally know Monsignor Lynn and attest to his kindness and humility – gives him a pass on his failure to act. Even those who think he was the “fall guy” for his superiors think that, at a human level, he could and should have done more.
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