PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
A Roman Catholic church official accused of keeping predator priests in ministry and transferring them from parish to parish has requested the case against him dismissed after new evidence shows his list of priests had been destroyed.
Facing trial, Monsignor William Lynn created the list of problem priests in 1994, but Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua had it destroyed, according to a defense memo filed Friday.
Lynn wants his child endangerment case dismissed because of new evidence turned over by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia which includes one surviving list of the 35 accused priests.
Lynn took it upon himself to review secret church files after becoming secretary for clergy in 1992, and he later gave a list of accused, still-active priests to his superior, Monsignor James E. Molloy.
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