UNITED STATES
Religion News Service
Boz Tchividjian | Jan 16, 2014
On January 2nd, a priest who was partly responsible for the sexual abuse of a 10 year old child, walked out of prison after his conviction was overturned. Monsignor William J. Lynn, a former official of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was convicted in 2012 of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (EWOC). Monsignor Lynn is one of the first members of clergy to face criminal charges for failing to adequately supervise a priest with a known history of child sexual abuse. In addition to the devastation perpetrated upon an innocent child, the great tragedy of this case was best articulated by the appellate judge who wrote,
….the Commonwealth presented more than adequate evidence to sufficiently demonstrate that Appellant [Lynn] prioritized the Archdiocese’s reputation over the safety of potential victims of sexually abusing priests…
In the 1990’s, Monsignor William Lynn was in charge of addressing clergy abuse issues within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. In 1992, Monsignor Lynn allowed a priest with known sexual abuse history to move into a parish rectory. A parish that included a grade school.
In early 1999, Edward Avery repeatedly sexually abused a ten year old boy who attended the parish grade school and had assisted Avery in serving mass.
In 2011, Monsignor William Lynn was charged with and convicted of the felony offense of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (EWOC) stemming from the 1999 offenses. He was sentenced to a prison term of three to six years. He appealed.
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