UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
A US state Supreme Court has reinstated the landmark child-endangerment conviction of the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese’s Monsignor William Lynn, who was the first high ranking US Church official ever prosecuted over his mishandling of priest child sex abuse complaints, see Supreme Court opinion . Lynn had been from 1992 to 2004 the top priest personnel aide to Philly Cardinals Justin Rigali and Anthony Bevilacqua. Both cardinals managed to avoid prosecution for their aide’s misdeeds done apparently on their behalf. Bevilacqua died soon after giving a two day video deposition (that is still being kept secret, it appears) in the Lynn criminal case, and Rigali left town in a hurry, by “retiring” after Lynn’s indictment. He may now be seen in good form with Pope Francis attending Vatican ceremonies along with his former pal, the infamous Boston Cardinal Bernard Law. The pope likely knew Bevilacqua from their Vatican committee work and appears to be personally acquainted with Rigali.
By my estimate, almost 25% of then active Philly priests had had sexual abuse complaints in their files reportedly secretly maintained by Lynn for his two cardinals. Portions of these files were reportedly kept from the Archdiocese’s child protection committee. Given the Archdiocese’s pervasive cover up mentality, who knows how many other complaints were not reported out of futility? In 2011, well regarded US Catholic Church historian, David J. O’Brien, reportedly told the NY Times that “The situation in Philadelphia is ‘Boston reborn.’ ” O’Brien was right then and appears still to be right. Why is Pope Francis honoring this disgraced Archdiocese? Have the US elections next year anything to do with the pope’s plans?
After Lynn was indicted, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Philly’s current hierarchical leader, reportedly “led the clerical cheerleaders” applauding Lynn at a large Philly private priests’ meeting. Rigali and/or Chaput then spent seemingly a small fortune on Lynn’s legal defense and also fully “lawyered up” their Archdiocese to fight abuse survivors’ claims, adding to their well connected Philly Republican focused law firm, Chaput’s former Colorado diocese’s law firm and the firm of the former Pennsylvania Democratic governor and Philly mayor and district attorney, who the NY Times had earlier reported as a suggested vice president for Hillary Clinton. Chaput has seemingly funded his “spare no bucks” lawyer onslaught by selling profitable Catholic senior citizens homes, closing Catholic churches and schools, selling Church property, etc., the usual US Catholic bishop’s drill for putting the protection of clerics as the highest priority.
See generally my remarks at (1) “A Cardinal, an Archbishop and a Funeral: A year in the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Priest Child Abuse Scandal” here,
and (2) “… the Philadelphia Inquirer: A Time of Truth About Child Abuse”, here, Bilgrimage , and my other extensive reports easily available at the Bilgrimage website; as well the links at “Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia” here,
Indeed, why is Pope Francis honoring with his first US visit a local church hierarchy with such a sordid history? The pope should instead apologize to Philly Catholics and also make Chaput apologize to Philly Catholics and tell him to release the Bevilacqua video deposition. And the pope should at a minimum publicly chastise Rigali instead of honoring him with Vatican invitations. Please see my relevant remarks, What Do We Now Know About The Real Goal Of Pope Francis?
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