UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
Last week, one Catholic official lost his diocese. This week, another one lost his freedom.
The similarities: Their names rhyme and their choices hurt kids.
The differences: Church officials barely punished one, but secular officials really punished the other.
Number one is Philadelphia’s Msgr. William Lynn. He is behind bars again, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a previous appeals panel’s ruling that released him from prison. The Justices ruled that Lynn, among other offenses, “misrepresented facts to (law enforcement) to thwart their investigation of priests and their crimes.”
Lynn was the first US Catholic official found guilty in criminal court of concealing child sex crimes.
Number two is Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn. In 2012, Finn became the first US bishop to be convicted of child endangerment for withholding evidence and suspicions from the police for months. (By the way, Finn never did turn over hundreds of sexual photos of kids taken by Fr. Shawn Ratigan. Finn’s second-in-command eventually did so, and was yelled at by Finn for having done so.)
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