ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
BishopAccountability.org

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William J. Lynn, Edward V. Avery, and James J. Brennan : Trial Narrative and Resources

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The trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan in Philadelphia was complex and lengthy, and its conclusion was a watershed event: the first conviction of a church official for child endangerment. During the trial, witnesses and exhibits provided the jury with information on 21 other accused priests whom Lynn had managed.

We have provided two resources for understanding the trial and the evidence that has been presented during it. On this page, we offer a day-by-day list of the witnesses, evidence, and courtroom discussions, with links to articles by journalists who were present at the trial and filed detailed accounts. The mainstays are John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Maryclaire Dale and Joann Loviglio of the Associated Press, and Ralph Cipriano of the Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog sponsored by The Beasley Firm. Many other reporters covered the trial, and we have included selections of their work. We have emphasized the longer accounts. The men and women of the press deserve everyone’s sincere thanks for their dedicated and able reporting during this epic trial.

We also provide, on a separate webpage, a day-by-day outline of the topics and persons in the trial to complement the chronological narrative offered on this page. The outline of topics and persons is linked to the narrative below.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

Posted on June 24, 2012

by Hilary Bentman

Bucks County residents had a lot to say about the verdicts in two landmark Pennsylvania trials involving child sex abuse.

Justice was served in the Jerry Sandusky case, they said Saturday, a day after the former Penn State assistant football coach was convicted on 45 of 48 counts that he sexually assaulted 10 boys. But the mixed outcome in the priests’ trial, also announced Friday, didn’t make them so happy.

“Dude is a pig,” Huntingdon Valley resident Kate Lewyckyj said about Sandusky, who is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. “Hope he goes to jail forever.”

In the priests’ trial, a jury agreed with prosecutors that Monsignor William Lynn, 61, helped keep predators in the priesthood by moving them to different parishes under the guise that the transfers were health related. …

Doylestown resident Carol Wilbur, a Catholic, said this kind of reasoning was reminiscent of the defense strategies used by some Nazis after World War II in their attempt to deflect responsibility for the Holocaust.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
The Australian

POPE Benedict XVI has convened a special meeting of cardinals for advice on how to deal with the Vatican’s leaked documents scandal.

The pope was already scheduled to attend a regular meeting of the heads of Vatican offices on Saturday morning.

The Vatican press office said he added a second meeting later in the day with other cardinals – including Sydney archbishop George Pell – in a bid to try to ”restore a climate of serenity and trust” in the church.

The Vatican said over the coming days he will meet with still more cardinals gathering in Rome for a church feast day on Friday to ”continue the dialogue with the people who share the responsibility of the church’s governance with him”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

Ten years … Three grand jury reports … One trial … 11 weeks of testimony … More than 60 witnesses … A trial judge who gave so much favoritism to one side that she was actually described as “often mistaken for a member of the prosecution team.” … 13 days of jury deliberations.

What were the results of the charges against the two high-profile defendants in this months-long landmark Philadelphia criminal trial? Let’s look:

Msgr. William J. Lynn
– Conspiracy charge #1 (w/ ex-priest Edward Avery): Not guilty
– Conspiracy charge #2 (w/ Rev. Brennan): Dismissed, May 2012
– Endangering the welfare of a child #1 (re: Edward Avery): Guilty
– Endangering the welfare of a child #2 (re: Rev. Brennan): Not guilty

Rev. James J. Brennan
– Conspiracy charge (w/ Msgr. William J. Lynn): Dismissed, May 2012
– Attempted rape (a reduced charge): Deadlocked jury
– Endangering the welfare of a child: Deadlocked jury

In other words, of all the numerous charges sent to a jury, only one charge was returned as a guilty verdict, and it was against a senior priest who left his diocesan secretary position eight years ago.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Leader-Post

By Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix June 23, 2012

Twelve-year-old Chance Adrian sat onstage with 32 other relatives, listening to his grandfather, Ted Quewezance, tell the audience about his residential school experience.

“(Quewezance) has been talking about this for a long time. I thought it would be good to be here for him,” Chance said Friday following the morning session of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada hearings at Prairieland Park.

“I learned a lot. They were treated almost like animals. It was crazy.”

Residential school survivors are testifying before the commission this week as part of the TRC’s fourday national gathering in Saskatoon, which continues through the weekend. Survivors are generally accompanied by a spouse, friend or counsellor as they testify. Chance and the rest of his family, wearing colourful matching scarves, decided they all needed to be there.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILIPPINES
YouTube

Published on Jun 20, 2012 by rapplerdotcom

Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado refuses to show Rappler his diocese’s financial records. “What for?” he tells Rappler’s Aries Rufo.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILIPPINES
Rappler

by Paterno Esmaquel II

Posted on 06/23/2012

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Can’t pay tuition?

St Andrew’s School (SAS), which is under the controversial Diocese of Parañaque, allegedly offers a solution that has sparked outrage from concerned alumni. This is for the school to “forcibly” demand collateral from parents that include game consoles and television sets, said SAS alumni in a public manifesto.

Through representative Eduardo Carabeo Jr, the alumni sent the statement in the wake of a Rappler exposé on Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado who is accused of fund misuse. (Read: Bishop accused of diverting millions.)

“We denounce the present SAS management’s decision in implementing a non-standing policy of forcing parents whose children have back accounts with the school, to produce ‘anything of considerable value’ such as certificate titles of land title (sic), jewelries, wristwatches, vehicle registration papers, even PlayStations, laptops, payroll-linked ATM cards, television sets, video cameras, etc, even those not owned by the parents themselves but even those of friends and relatives, to be posted as guarantee, as if SAS were already engaged in the business of pawnshops,” the alumni said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By JENNIFER BAIN and JOSE MARTINEZ

A teenage boy faced off in court today with the rabbi he accused of molesting him when he was in first grade.

The 13-year-old boy testified that he was “scared” when Rabbi Joel Kolko glared at him and his dad on their way to synagogue – an encounter that now has the notorious Brooklyn rabbi on trial for allegedly violating an order of protection.

“When I crossed the street I turned around and saw him staring like this,” the boy said, as he crossed his arms. “Staring at me and my father. I said… ‘Why’s he looking at me?'”

Kolko escaped sex-offender status by pleading guilty in 2008 to misdemeanor child endangerment of the boy and a first-grade classmate at a Flatbush yeshiva. The boys had accused him of touching their private parts.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSE MARTINEZ

Even a rabbi who’s been accused of being a pervert can live wherever he darn well pleases.

A defense lawyer for Rabbi Joel Kolko insisted yesterday that his client did no wrong when he had an up-close encounter near his Brooklyn home with a 13-year-old boy he was barred from contacting.

“Is there anything in that order that directs Mr. Kolko to turn and run in the opposite direction if he sees [the alleged victim]?” lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz asked a state court clerk who was testifying about the order of protection.

“No,” said associate court clerk Peter Montella.

The boy and his dad got the order of protection in 2008 after accusing the ultra-Orthodox rabbi of being a child molester — allegations from 2006 that did not stick.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Hella Winston
Jewish Week Correspondent

A 13-year-old boy who alleges he was molested by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko told a Brooklyn jury on Thursday that he felt “scared” when the rabbi — whom he identified from the stand — stared at him on the street on two occasions in late 2010.

Rabbi Kolko is currently on trial for violating an order of protection requiring him to refrain from having any contact with the boy. The order was part of a 2008 plea deal stemming from charges that Rabbi Kolko sexually abused the boy when he was a first grader in Kolko’s class (charges were also brought against the rabbi for allegedly abusing another boy).

Rabbi Kolko — who has been dogged by child molestation allegations for over 30 years — ultimately pleaded to lesser charges of child endangerment and received probation; he was not required to register as a sex offender.

The plea deal has drawn criticism from advocates and some observers because of the lack of jail time and/or mandatory sex offender registration. But the district attorney has defended the plea, claiming that neither family wanted their child to testify and noting that both signed a document consenting to the deal.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com

He may finally go to prison.

Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a haredi teacher and camp counselor with a long history of alleged child sexual abuse covering four decades, escaped a prison sentence in 2008 when Brooklyn’s ethically challenged District Attorney Charles Hynes gave Kolko what some observers say was the sweetheart plea deal of the decade.

Kolko, who allegedly fondled the genitals of two first graders while rubbing his erect penis against their clothed bodies, got 10 years probation and escaped sex offender registration because, Hynes claimed, neither of the victims’ families wanted their little boys to testify in court.

But that appears to have been a lie, as Hella Winston reminds us in The Jewish Week:

…The Jewish Week reported at the time [of the plea deal] that both families claimed they were willing to have their sons testify. The paper also obtained a letter to the district attorney, written by one of the fathers to the district attorney and dated one day after he signed off on the plea deal, that “[m]y son was ready to go to trial and we feel he would have done an excellent job and I am sorry to hear that [the case against] Joel Kolko will not proceed further.”…

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

TENNESSEE
The Daily Times

Katie Forrester | Daily Times Correspondent

Charlie Jones was just 8 years old when he was the victim of sexual abuse by a family friend. It happened when his parents left him, his sister and a friend with their “brother” in the Jehovah’s Witnesses a few times.

“He’d take me to the other room and molest me back there,” Jones said. This abuse happened on at least two occasions that Jones can remember, and each time the other two children were told that Jones had misbehaved and was about to receive punishment.

Jones said that on one occasion his mother came back and the man cleaned him up and told his mother that he was punished for misbehaving to explain why Jones was crying. Jones said that he was punished by his unknowing mother on the way home for not behaving as he should have.

Parents didn’t know

“The issue was that my parents did not know he was a predator,” Jones said.

According to Jones, a major factor in cases such as his within the Jehovah’s Witnesses is the secrecy policy. Jones said that the written rule for bringing to light cases of sexual abuse states that for any accusation you must have two or more witnesses, including the victim. If both witnesses were victims of different attacks by the same person, then those testimonies would suffice as two witnesses.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Post

By ZACH BRAZILLER

Family, friends and countless members of the city’s basketball community convened upon the Church of the Intercession in Morningside Heights to remember Ernie Lorch, the multimillionaire corporate attorney and controversial founder and director of powerhouse AAU program Riverside Church, at a memorial service Saturday morning.

Lorch passed away at the age of 80 May 14 at a Yonkers nursing home after batting diabetes and growing dementia, among other health issues. He was remembered on Saturday as a caring man who gave to others, who built Riverside Church from scratch into the nation’s top AAU program, who took inner-city youths around the world for basketball tournament.

“Mr. Ernie Lorch was the greatest man I ever knew because he taught me about life,” said NBA veteran and Riverside player Albert King, who had to hold back tears as he spoke. …

Lorch was also dogged for years by alleged sexual abuse. He turned Riverside Church into arguably the nation’s elite program before allegations of sexual abuse of a former player led to his resignation in 2002.

Lorch was also indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury for allegedly molesting a New York teenager in Amherst more than 30 years ago, but in November a Westchester judge ruled Lorch wasn’t competent to be extradited to stand trial.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OREGON
Mail Tribune

June 24, 2012

By Sanne Specht
Mail Tribune

Officials of a local church are battling their insurance company over demands that sex offenders who come to worship be treated as if they had come to prey, rather than pray.

Chad McComas, pastor at Set Free Christian Fellowship in Medford, said his church disclosed to its insurance company that there were known sex offenders within its congregation. That honesty may spell the end of Set Free, a church he started in 1997.

On May 1, the insurance company, Church Mutual, sent a letter requiring McComas to disclose to his congregation the identity of any and all sex offenders, allow those offenders to attend only one predetermined service each week where they must report in and be assigned an escort who will accompany them at all times, and bar them from participating in any child or youth programs.

“Please respond by June 15, 2012. We will review your procedures. If you have not met all the requirements, we may no longer be able to continue your coverage,” the letter states.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

Inquirer Editorial

Outside their own circles, they’re mostly unknown — and certainly not referred to as Victim No. … But other child sex-abuse victims across Pennsylvania are just as entitled to justice as those whose accusations were heard in the sensational trials of a former college football coach and a high-ranking Catholic Church official.

Many of the other victims have also suffered in silence for decades, often unable to admit to themselves the horror of being abused as a child or teen. And if they did decide to come forward, it would likely be too late under the state’s criminal and civil statutes.

These other victims waited even as separate juries wrestled with the charges against former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, whose alleged victims now include an adopted son, and Archdiocese of Philadelphia Msgr. William Lynn — who on Friday became the first U.S. church official convicted in a child sex-abuse case.

Sandusky was found guilty late Friday on 45 counts of child sex abuse. Lynn was found guilty earlier on one count of child endangerment and acquitted on two other charges. The jury deadlocked on two child-abuse counts against the Rev. James J. Brennan.

For victims in yet unknown cases to get their day in court, Harrisburg lawmakers and Gov. Corbett must push aside special interests, including the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the insurance lobby, and carve a path to the courthouse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Digital Journal

[Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William J. Lynn, Edward V. Avery, and James J. Brennan – BishopAccountability.org]

By Yukio Strachan

Philadelphia- No top U.S. official of the Roman Catholic Church has been ever criminally convicted for child endangerment –– until now.

After 13 days of deliberations, a Philadelphia jury of seven men and five women found Monsignor William Lynn guilty on Friday (June 22) of one count of endangering the welfare of a child and acquitted of two other counts — one of conspiracy and a second endangerment charge.

The Washington Post writes that lead prosecutor Patrick Blessington, seemed angry at Lynn’s acquittals. So he wasted no time in asking that the priest be taken right to custody.

The 61-year-old Lynn, face reddened but stoic, slipped off his black clerical jacket before deputy sheriffs led him out of the courtroom and into custody, his family members weeping, Reuters said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Boston Herald

By Margery Eagan
Sunday, June 24, 2012

Just hours before a jury on Friday found former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty of raping and sexually abusing boys as young as 9, a Philadelphia jury convicted a Catholic monsignor of allowing a known pedophile priest to continue his ministry with children — resulting in the sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy.

The parallels between the two cases and the church sex abuse crisis here just take your breath away.

One parallel: The predators were not strangers in trench coats but respected, supposedly upstanding members of powerful, all-male, insular and elite communities. “A saint,” is the word a local wrestling coach used to describe Sandusky, legendary for his charisma, charm and generosity to the disadvantaged children he helped and even adopted. Now one adopted son has accused Sandusky of abusing him, too.

How ironic that so many parents today, fearing strangers, won’t let our children play outside or walk anywhere alone. Yet we now know that attackers almost always turn out to be those both we and our children know and trust, those we may not suspect even after the abuse occurs.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Goucester County Times

By Gloucester County Times Editorial Board

The region’s two biggest criminal cases, now concluded, have one appalling feature in common:

In this booking photo released early Saturday morning June 23, 2012 by the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, Pa., former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is shown. Sandusky was convicted on Friday, June 22, 2012, of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. (AP Photo/Centre County Correctional Facility)

They’re both about grown men, men in positions of authority, and abuse of little boys.

The lessons are writ large for parents, teachers and employers. This stuff happens, and it happens in places where it’s least likely to be suspected.

In church.

In a respected college football program.

In a typical American small town.

In Philadelphia, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted Friday of child endangerment for covering up abuse within the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. A jury couldn’t agree on a verdict for colleague who was charged with trying to rape a 14-year-old boy. The trial came after several guilty pleas and dozens of claims from boys who said they were molested by trusted parish priests.

In central Pennsylvania, former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday night on 45 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 boys.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

One conviction is better than none. Don’t forget that.

It’s easy to focus on totals and percentages when tallying victory and defeat. Everyone loves a rout; a one-run shutout is still a big win.

Before last week, no high-ranking Catholic official anywhere had been held accountable for the sexual abuse of children by anointed representatives of God.

As of Friday, one has. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Msgr. William J. Lynn has a new title: third-degree felon guilty of endangering the welfare of a minor.

Thursday night, Lynn rested comfortably at home. Friday, the once-powerful church leader who speculated that a boy had “seduced” a priest left the Criminal Justice Center with a sheriff’s deputy escort to county jail.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Michael D. Schaffer
Inquirer Staff Writer

The last decade has been a season of agony for the Catholic Church in the United States, a pilgrimage through purgatory made all the more painful by being self-inflicted.

Thousands of children have accused Catholic priests, seminarians, nuns, and brothers of molesting them. Victims have told stories of suffering intensified by official church neglect. The church has paid out billions of dollars in settlements. Most controversial of all, Catholic bishops have been accused of trying to hush it all up, shuffling offenders from one unsuspecting parish to another.

Now, Msgr. William J. Lynn, former secretary for clergy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has become the first high-ranking church official convicted for failing to protect children from the possibility of abuse. …

“It’s hugely significant and long overdue,” said Philip F. Lawler, editor of the online Catholic World News. “If bishops and their assistants in the chanceries had been accountable, they wouldn’t have to be held accountable by the courts.”

“It’s a major, major move forward for those of us trying to help victims,” said the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a canon lawyer formerly on the staff of the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Washington.

An even higher-ranking church official than Lynn – Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., – has been charged criminally with failure to report abuse. Finn was indicted on the misdemeanor charge in October. His trial is scheduled for September.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KEYC

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Mild-mannered Bill Lynn proved a loyal, likable colleague as he climbed the ranks of the powerful Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

A jury on Friday found the meek monsignor too loyal for his own good, convicting him of a felony for refusing to challenge his cardinal and stop the cover-up of child sex abuse by priests.

Lynn’s conviction is the first for a U.S. church official and comes in a diocese now beset by layoffs, parish closures and a new round of soul searching over the long-running abuse scandal.

“Why does this stand out? Because he didn’t say no,” said Chris Walsh, a city pastor who leads the Association of Philadelphia Priests, an independent group formed last year to gather support and information for rank-and-file priests.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Slate

By Abby Ohlheiser| Posted Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Vatican will be getting some (much needed) PR help after hiring a Fox News correspondent as a senior communications adviser for the Church’s top administrative office, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The Fox News staffer, Greg Burke, is also a member of the conservative Catholic Opus Dei group. He will leave his job at Fox, where he is a Rome-based reporter. Before working for Fox, Burke was a Rome-based journalist for Time.

The recent, embarrassing Vatican leaks scandal is only the latest PR disaster to plague the Church since Pope Benedict XVI’s election, as the AP notes. Previous blunders include the Vatican’s response to the 2010 sex abuse scandal, the Pope’s remarks on Muslims and violence, and the rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican, stung by communications blunders and mired in a leaks scandal, has hired an American journalist from Fox News and member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei to help improve its relations with the media.

The TV journalist, Greg Burke, and the Vatican on Saturday confirmed what a senior Church source had earlier told Reuters.

Burke, Fox’s Rome-based roving correspondent for Europe and the Middle East, will assume the new post of “senior communications adviser” to the Secretariat of State, the key department in the Vatican’s central bureaucracy. …

He will report directly to the Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the third-ranking person in the Vatican hierarchy. Father Federico Lombardi will remain spokesman.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
New York Magazine

By Caroline Bankoff

Since taking over at the Vatican in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI has had his share of public relations problems. Take, for example, those outrage-spurring statements about the founder of Islam being “evil and inhuman,” or the pardoning of that Holocaust-denying bishop, and, of course, the constant mismanaging of the Catholic church’s many child abuse scandals. More recently, they’ve been dealing with a papal butler’s decision to leak a host of embarrassing internal documents. Today, the Vatican announced that they’ll be taking on these and future issues with a new and improved communications strategy molded by Fox News’s now former Rome correspondent Greg Burke, who will become the Holy See’s senior communications adviser.

“I’m a bit nervous but very excited. Let’s just say it’s a challenge,” Burke said in a phone interview.

He defined his job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as: “You’re shaping the message, you’re molding the message, and you’re trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that’s tough.”

Burke is a member of Opus Dei, though he wouldn’t say whether he thought that had anything to do with his appointment, because Opus Dei is full of secrets. “Am I being hired because I’m in Opus Dei?” he asked. “It might come into play,” he said while noting that he was “also in Opus when he was hired by Time and Fox.” We’ll leave it to the world’s conspiracy theorists and remaining Da Vinci Code obsessives to figure out what that means.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

VATICAN CITY • Greg Burke, a native St. Louisan who had been working for Fox News, will become the senior communications adviser at the Vatican, officials said Saturday.

The Vatican said Burke, who was the Fox correspondent in Rome, will help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, officials said Saturday.

Burke, 52, defined the job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as being along the lines of the White House senior communications adviser: “You’re shaping the message, you’re molding the message, and you’re trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that’s tough.”

Burke is a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement. Pope John Paul II’s longtime spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, was also a member of Opus Dei and was known for the papal access he enjoyed and his ability to craft the messages John Paul wanted to get out.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
MSNBC

By NICOLE WINFIELD, VICTOR L. SIMPSON

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Greg Burke, 52, will leave Fox to become a senior communications adviser in the Vatican’s secretariat of state, the Vatican and Burke told the AP.

“I’m a bit nervous but very excited. Let’s just say it’s a challenge,” Burke said in a phone interview.

He defined his job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as: “You’re shaping the message, you’re molding the message, and you’re trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that’s tough.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Kerryman (Ireland)

Sunday June 24 2012

The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, officials said.

Greg Burke, 52, will leave Fox to become the senior communications adviser in the Vatican’s secretariat of state.

“I’m a bit nervous but very excited. Let’s just say it’s a challenge,” Burke said.

He defined his job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as being along the lines of the White House senior communications adviser: “You’re shaping the message, you’re moulding the message, and you’re trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that’s tough.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
American Thinker

Matt C. Abbott

I’m relieved yet saddened by the events of June 22, 2012.

Relieved because I believe justice has been served both in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case and, in Philadelphia, the case resulting in the conviction of a senior Catholic Church official for child endangerment. Saddened for those whose lives have been damaged by abuse in these particular cases and in so many others.

From Reuters:

A jury found former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty on 45 of 48 child sex abuse charges on Friday, ending a trial that rocked U.S. college football and renewed attention on pedophilia in America….

And from The Wall Street Journal:

A Philadelphia jury delivered a sharp rebuke of the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse by its priests, convicting for the first time a senior church official of not taking steps that could have prevented further attacks.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fehmarn Heiligenhafen

Philadelphia – In einem aufsehenerregenden Prozess ist ein hochrangiger Kirchenvertreter in den USA wegen seiner Rolle bei der Vertuschung sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt worden.

Monsignore William Lynn wurde am Freitag in Philadelphia schuldig gesprochen, Kinder gefährdet zu haben. Vom Vorwurf der Verschwörung sprach das Gericht den 61-Jährigen jedoch frei. Mit dem Richterspruch wurde erstmals ein in der Verwaltung tätiger Vertreter der katholischen Kirche in den USA in dem Skandal verurteilt.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
der Standard

Wegen seiner Rolle bei der Vertuschung – Erster Schuldspruch für katholische Kirche

Philadelphia – In einem aufsehenerregenden Prozess ist ein hochrangiger Kirchenvertreter in den USA wegen seiner Rolle bei der Vertuschung sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt worden. Monsignore William Lynn wurde am Freitag in Philadelphia schuldig gesprochen, Kinder gefährdet zu haben. Vom Vorwurf der Verschwörung sprach das Gericht den 61-Jährigen jedoch frei. Mit dem Richterspruch wurde erstmals ein in der Verwaltung tätiger Vertreter der katholischen Kirche in den USA in dem Skandal verurteilt.

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ALASKA
dradio

[mit Audio]

Von Michael Hollenbach

Sexueller Missbrauch durch Geistliche hat die katholische Kirche in den vergangenen Jahren sehr in Bedrängnis gebracht. So auch in der Diözese Fairbanks im US-Bundesstaat Alaska. Hier wurden mehr als 300 Kinder und Jugendliche von Kirchenangehörigen sexuell missbraucht.

Martin Schlüter ist zufällig auf den Skandal gestoßen. Nach dem Abitur war der Hamburger mit zwei Freunden drei Monate mit dem Fahrrad in Alaska unterwegs. Fasziniert von der unglaublichen Landschaft und der Gastfreundschaft der dort lebenden Eskimos ist der heute 34-Jährige dem Landstrich im hohen Norden verbunden geblieben. Als er mal wieder im Internet nachschaute, was es Neues in Alaska gibt, stieß er auf eine kleine Meldung über jahrzehntelange sexuelle Gewalt bei den Eskimos – ein Skandal, den das übrige Nordamerika kaum tangierte:

“Es ist so, dass in Amerika – vielleicht ähnlich wie in Australien mit den Aborigines – sich keiner so richtig dafür interessiert. Es gibt starke Vorurteile gegen die Ureinwohner, eine richtige Lobby oder eine Anteilnahme gibt es da nicht.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

In der Debatte um die Verjährungsfristen für sexuelle Gewalttaten hat sich die SPD klar dafür ausgesprochen, die rechtliche Lage der Opfer zu verbessern. Die stellvertretende Fraktionsvorsitzende der SPD im Bundestag Christine Lambrecht sagte der ZEIT: „Die rechtliche Situation der Opfer ist unzumutbar. Wir brauchen deutlich längere Verjährungsfristen. Also 20 Jahre im Strafrecht und 30 Jahre im Zivilrecht.“ Der SPD-Gesetzesentwurf dafür sei bereits durch die erste Lesung, werde aber von der Regierungskoalition nicht weiter bearbeitet. „Wir wollen das in der nächsten Sitzungswoche im Rechtsausschuss thematisieren. Wenn das nicht geschieht, wollen wir eine Geschäftsordnungsdebatte im Bundestag erwirken.“ Die komplette Aufhebung der Verjährungsfristen sei zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt jedoch nicht durchsetzbar, betonte Lambrecht.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin Saturday, June 23, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting this morning with heads of the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia and will be meeting six other cardinals later this evening.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said reason for the meetings is because the Holy Father wishes to “speed up” the conclusion of the “Vatileaks” scandal and to “restore serenity and trust” in the Curia.

“In regard to the situation created following the dissemination of confidential documents, the Holy Father deepens his reflections in continuous dialogue with the people who share with him the responsibility for the government of the Church,” Fr. Lombardi said in a statement.

He said the meeting this morning with the Heads of the Dicasteries “is usually devoted to issues surrounding the better coordination of the work of the Curia,” but which today is “particularly important and urgent for the effective witness to their harmony of purpose and the spirit which animates it.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Press Association

Pope Benedict XVI has convened a meeting of cardinals for advice on how to deal with the Vatican’s leaked documents scandal.

The Pope was already scheduled to attend a regular meeting of the heads of Vatican offices.

The Vatican press office said he added a second meeting later in the day with other cardinals in an attempt to try to “restore a climate of serenity and trust” in the Catholic Church.

Over the coming days he will meet with still more cardinals gathering in Rome, for a church feast day on Friday, to “continue the dialogue with the people who share the responsibility of the church’s governance with him”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
OpEd News

By
Joey Piscitelli

The very first conviction of a Roman Catholic Official for child endangerment in the USA has been decided in a Pennsylvania court jury trial on Friday June 22, 2012.

Monsignor William Lynn, 61 yrs. old, has been convicted by a 7 man, 5 woman jury, who decided he was guilty of transferring sex abusers, and covering up a list of at least 37 accused priests – and not alerting parents of their potential threat to children.

Evidence showed Monsignor Lynn willfully reassigned pedophile clergy to unsuspecting schools and parishes, without regard for safety; and with the intention of protecting the catholic church instead.

This unprecedented conviction will have far reaching impact on other cases in the US in the future, as no other catholic official in a high position of power has ever been tried and convicted in any court.

One of the most disturbing revelations brought up in the trial showed that Lynn had reportedly told some of the pedophile priests in the diocese that it was the fault of the child victims for enticing the priests into a sexual encounter. Another outrageous allegation was that Cardinal Bevilaqua had ordered the monsignor to destroy the list of sex abusers in the Diocese of Philadelphia, and to conceal the order.

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VATICAN CITY
U-T San Diego

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI convened a special meeting of cardinals Saturday for advice on how to deal with the Vatican’s leaked documents scandal – another sign of the damage the leaks have done to trust in the Holy See’s governance.

Benedict was already scheduled to attend a regular meeting of the heads of Vatican offices Saturday morning. The Vatican press office said he added a second meeting later in the day with other cardinals in a bid to try to “restore a climate of serenity and trust” in the church.

The Vatican said over the coming days he will meet with still more cardinals gathering in Rome for a church feast day on Friday to “continue the dialogue with the people who share the responsibility of the church’s governance with him.”

The Vatican has been scrambling to contain the damage after the leak of hundreds of Vatican documents exposed corruption, political infighting and power struggles at the highest level of the Catholic Church. The pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, is under arrest at the Vatican, accused of aggravated theft after the pope’s own documents were found in his Vatican City apartment.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
BishopAccountability.org

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William J. Lynn, Edward V. Avery, and James J. Brennan : Trial Narrative and Resources

Note: This page is a work in progress. Please refresh your browser to view the latest additions and updates.

The trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan in Philadelphia was complex and lengthy, and its conclusion was a watershed event: the first conviction of a church official for child endangerment. During the trial, witnesses and exhibits provided the jury with information on 21 other accused priests whom Lynn had managed.

We have provided two resources for understanding the trial and the evidence that has been presented during it. On this page, we offer a day-by-day list of the witnesses, evidence, and courtroom discussions, with links to articles by journalists who were present at the trial and filed detailed accounts. The mainstays are John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Maryclaire Dale and Joann Loviglio of the Associated Press, and Ralph Cipriano of the Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog sponsored by The Beasley Firm. Many other reporters covered the trial, and we have included selections of their work. We have emphasized the longer accounts. The men and women of the press deserve everyone’s sincere thanks for their dedicated and able reporting during this epic trial.

We also provide, on a separate webpage, a day-by-day outline of the topics and persons in the trial to complement the chronological narrative offered on this page. The outline of topics and persons is linked to the narrative below.

Our narrative begins with a table of contents providing single-line summaries of the trial week-by-week. Click on any week, and you jump down the webpage to that week, where resources (marked >), summaries of court events (marked •), and links to articles (marked -) are provided for each day.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

Catholic priest’s child-endangerment conviction underscores limits of law in abuse scandal

By Associated Press, Saturday, June 23

NEW YORK — A decade after the clergy sex-abuse crisis erupted, the first Roman Catholic church official has been criminally convicted for failing to alert parishes or police about known predators.

Advocates for children said the verdict Friday against Monsignor William Lynn sends a critical message that diocesan officials who supervise priests must report offenders or face prosecution.

Lynn was secretary of the clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004. A jury in Philadelphia found him guilty of one count of child endangerment but acquitted him of conspiracy and a second child endangerment count.

Lynn was far from the only diocesan official in the United States who kept accused priests in parish assignments. Thousands of case files made public through lawsuits and civil investigations revealed that consistent inaction by church officials in the face of abuse claims in earlier years left a trail of victims in dioceses nationwide. About 16,000 claims have been made against Catholic clergy since 1950, according to studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Patch

By James Myers

By now most readers are familiar with the case against Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn was charged with several counts of endangering children and conspiracy for his alleged role in covering up instances of sexual abuse of children by priests in Archdiocese of Philadelphia. [See this timeline of the case put together by The New York Times.]

On Friday, Lynn, a former aide to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, was found guilty of endangering children and became the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in America convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests. Lynn was acquited of conspiracy and another count of endangerment by the jury.

Many local Catholics have struggled for years with their faith and loyalty to the church in the face of sexual abuse allegations and cover ups. While it is often the topic of discussion at the dinner table, around the water cooler or on social media sites like Facebook, it is rarely addressed at the altar.

Father Liam Murphy, who served at Saint Patrick’s Church in Norristown from 2004 to 2011 and is now stationed at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in West Grove, Pa., plans to do just that in his remarks to his parishoners at this week’s masses. He’s posted his thoughts, in which he takes church leadership to task for its silence on this issue, to his Facebook page:

Dear Friends:
This is a copy of my remarks made at Masses on the weekend of June 23-24:

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the elephant in the room. Yes. As has been reported in the news, Msgr. Lynn was found guilty on Friday of child endangerment. For some, perhaps many, this verdict brings with it at least some small sense of justice rendered. No doubt, it makes clear that “I was just following orders,” is an unacceptable defense in the face of blatant evil.

Yet for many with whom I have spoken and with whom I agree, it is only a partial sense of justice. Because the other elephant in the room is the fact that those directly in charge, the bishops, have yet to claim or accept responsibility for their own horrific part in this painful scandal. Not a single bishop has acknowledged or apologized for his decision to put the image of the Church before the protection and care of sexual abuse victims of clergy. Nor have any bishops had the decency or courage to call their fellow bishops to accountability.

The result? Many Catholics, including fellow clerics, friends who are practicing Catholics and friends who have left a Church they find disingenuous, dismiss the bishops as inauthentic and unworthy of their attention.

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UNITED STATES
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Joe Saunders
June 23, 2012 1:36 PM

The Penn State football dynasty and the Roman Catholic Church both for decades have put their own prestige and privilege ahead of the safety of children. The criminal convictions last night are a measure of justice for children whose words were not believed in the face of denials by the these powerful institutions. In both of these cases it was not only the evil of the child predators that was at issue but the abuse of power by the institutions that allowed child rapes to go on for years.

I hope that these cases are just the first step in protecting children and in holding those responsibe for child abuse and the cover ups accountable. Monsignor William Lynn of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was the first upper level official of the Catholic Church to be held accountable for protecting child rapists and endangering children. From the evidence in that case it is clear that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua who was Monsignor Lynn’s boss was probably even more culpable. Monsignor Lynn was the vicar for clergy under Cardinal Bevilacqua which means that he was authorized to act for and stand in the place of the Cardinal. Monsignor Lynn was the also the personnel manager of the Archdiocese.

The next significant criminal case pending is the child sex abuse cover up case against Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City. This case against Bishop Finn is only the second criminal prosecution ever against a high level Catholic priest for covering up for another priest child sex abuser. In spite of this charge and the clear underlying evidence that Bishop Lynn failed or refused to follow Missouri law and report child abuse to law enforcement the Vatican still has not removed Bishop Lynn.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Lawyer Herald

By Tatjana Kulkarni
June 23, 2012

PHILADELPHIA. – The Archbishop’s top former aid former Msgr. William J. Lynn was convicted Friday of child endangerment. A jury of 12 found Lynn guilty of knowingly putting a priest alleged to be a child molester in charge of a youth project involving many children.

The 61-year-old was found guilty on one count of child endangerment. He was acquitted of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment. Never the less he could face up to seven years in prison. The sentencing is set for August 13. Msgr. Lynn is expected to file for appeal.

The ruling is truly a milestone since it is the first time a top member of the Roman Catholic Church has been convicted in a sex-abuse case in the history of the U.S.

The 10-week trial resulted from the U.S. district attorney crack-down on various reported sex-abuse incidences involving high-level priests in the archdiocese.

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NEW JERSEY
The Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse

Bill To Eliminate Civil Statute Of Limitations On Sex Abuse Cases Clears Judiciary Panel

NJToday.net
June 22, 2012

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senators Joseph F. Vitale and Nicholas P. Scutari that would hold accountable in civil court child sex offenders and organizations that fail to appropriately respond to employees who commit sex crimes against children was approved Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill, S-1651, would remove the statute of limitations on civil child sex abuse cases, expand who is potentially liable in these actions and provide that public entities would be liable.

“Expanding the statute of limitations on sexual abuse is imperative to providing justice for the victims of these heinous crimes,” said Vitale, D-Middlesex. “The scars of sexual abuse do not heal easily, but hopefully, with time, compassion, counseling and a measure of justice, many of the victims will be able to get on with their lives. While a statute of limitations may make sense in certain civil cases, when it comes to the difficulty that victims endure to speak out about and seek justice for sexual abuse, they should be given a little more leeway. This bill makes sure that sexual abuse victims receive the time and patience needed for them to face their abusers in court.”

“Considering the psychological scars and lifelong trauma of child molestation, many of the victims are not able to process or speak about the crime until long after it has been committed and often not without extensive therapy,” said Scutari, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The current two-year statute of limitations is quite prohibitive in allowing for these victims to seek damages against their abusers. This law will not constrict sexual abuse victims with a meaningless timeline and will provide them with the ability to continue to seek justice and bring closure to their past abuse.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion Dispatches

Post by Anthea Butler

Finally, after 10 weeks of testimony and 13 days of deliberation, a partial verdict was reached in the trial of Monsignor William J Lynn and Father Patrick Brennan. Monsignor Lynn was convicted of one count of endangering a child, while the charges against Father James J Brennan, accused of child endangerment, corruption of a minor, and attempted rape, resulted in a jury deadlock.

The outcome was mixed, but I agree with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Ronnie Polaneczky, that whatever the outcome, the priest sex abuse jury did their job. As did the prosecutors. The determination of the Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams and his team of prosecutors may not have resulted in a sweeping conviction but it was nonetheless valuable. It put into the public mind the manner in which the church made its decisions to move priests around without worrying about impunity from outsiders, or the legal system.

That is a huge change. The scope of the decades of abuse is no longer hidden and platitudes, payouts, and random apology sessions by Pope Benedict will no longer suffice as penance.

I was in the courtroom for the closing arguments which highlighted the deep divides and opinions about the role of the Philadelphia hierarchy in the cases. It was patently clear that there were three other men who should have been present to answer to these charges: The “princes” of the church, Kroll, Bevilaqua, and Rigali. Their complicity in the cases of abuse in the archdiocese was on trial as well, and to this observer they were found wanting. It certainly appeared as though it was their direction that allowed these incidences to occur.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Voice from the Desert

Road to Recovery, Inc., the only non-profit charity in the United States that provides direct services of many kinds to clergy abuse survivors, stands with all victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as they absorb the news that Monsignor William Lynn has been found guilty of child endangerment. This verdict would not have been possible had brave victims not come forward to report sexual abuse to law enforcement.

District Attorney Seth Williams is to be thanked and congratulated for holding Msgr. Lynn and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia accountable for endangering the welfare of children. The Prosecution team, led by Assistant District Attorney Pat Blessington, was valiant in their presentation of a case that sent a message from Philadelphia all the way to the Vatican. Perhaps a cleansing of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, a necessary development, will now take place.

It is clear that indictments and convictions of Church officials could be entered in every diocese in the country. For too long, victims and their advocates have attempted to hold their abusers and enablers accountable, only to be dismissed and vilified by Church officials. The jury of peers in Philadelphia has sent a message to all citizens of the USA that the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse by the Catholic Church is over, will not be tolerated by law enforcement officials, and criminal charges will be filed against perpetrators and those who assign and protect them.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
dotCommonweal

June 22, 2012

Posted by Paul Moses

Many will be elated that Monsignor William Lynn has been found guilty of one count of child endangerment. I’m not. It’s a sad day for Lynn, and for the church. And yet, it’s a necessary one.

The Philadelphia jury, which acquitted Lynn on two other counts, worked extremely hard. I hope we’ll see interviews with some of the jurors that explain their decision.

Absent that, it’s a little difficult to interpret the verdict with the information available. Sometimes, juries just compromise – no favor to Lynn, since it only takes a conviction on one count to expose a defendant to prison time and change the course of his life. For a defendant, there is really no such thing as a “mixed verdict,” as this is being called.

The jurors’ questions during the long deliberation indicated that they were very troubled by the conspiracy charge, and the panel passed up the chance to convict Lynn of entering into an illicit agreement with his superiors. So – this is preliminary – it looks like a verdict that focuses on Lynn’s personal responsibility. To reach it, the jury had to reject the so-called “only-following-orders” defense – a weak defense in any case.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Statement by Christopher Anderson, Executive Director, MaleSurvivor, 917 524 8934 on June 22, 2012

MaleSurvivor applauds the jury for it’s courageous verdict and the tireless work of prosecutors and officials in the case against Monsignor Lynn.

This verdict sends a clear and unmistakable message to all institutions that harbor and enable molesters to thrive within their walls: Sexual abuse will not be tolerated in our communities any longer. This verdict also sends a powerful message to all survivors of sexual abuse: Your voices will be heard. Finally, instead of facing obstruction and defeat, those who have suffered in silence for far too long are beginning to feel empowered to come forward and speak openly about what was once an unspeakable shame. Not only does this help survivors heal, it also begins to help heal our society as well.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Herald

[with video]

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian / The Philadelphia Inquirer
Saturday, June 23, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A jury convicted Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment Friday, finding that as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia secretary for clergy, he ignored credible warning signs about a priest who later sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy.

The verdict, after a three-month trial, marked the first time since the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted a decade ago that a Catholic Church supervisor has been found criminally liable for child-sex crimes by a priest.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina immediately revoked Lynn’s bail, and deputy sheriffs escorted the white-haired monsignor to a holding cell. Lynn faces up to seven years in prison, and prosecutors vowed to seek a term near the maximum.

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PHILIPPINES
Tempo

MANILA, Philippines – No, this is not about pedophile priests or bishops with mistresses and a love child or two. It’s about five parish priests, all belonging to the same Metro Manila diocese, whose battle cry is, “Thou shall not steal.”

They have serious allegations against their bishop – from mismanagement of the diocese’s funds, to the tune of millions and millions over the course of the last 10 years (out of the bishop’s reign of 15); mistreatment of priests and other inferiors, like shouting at them and humiliating them in public; and “his relationship with that woman,” allegedly his accountant and treasurer who holds, they say, the power of the purse.

The leader and oldest member of the group said parishioners have long suspected that the bishop has been hoarding proceeds from the second collection at the end of the mass. “That woman,” he added, has a lot of explaining to do, even if she comes from a well-off family and lives with her husband in a high-end subdivision not far from town.

Priests and parishioners want to know where the funds, principally sourced from the churches’ collections and the donations of generous souls, have gone – to heaven, that hot place below, or are they still on earth?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

[with video]

By Omari Fleming, Reporter

PHILADELPHIA –
It was a mixed verdict Friday in the landmark Philadelphia priest sex abuse case, but victims say it’s an important step forward for their rights.

Monsignor William Lynn was convicted of child endangerment, which could get him up to seven years in prison

It’s the first time a church official has been convicted of covering abuse allegations. He was acquitted of conspiracy charges.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

Posted on June 23, 2012

by Christian Menno

Bucks residents had plenty to say Friday following the landmark conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official charged with child endangerment and the hung-jury outcome of another priest with local ties accused of sexually abusing a minor.

A Philadelphia jury agreed with prosecutors that Monsignor William Lynn, 61, helped keep predators in the priesthood by moving them to different parishes under the guise that the transfers were health-related.

Lynn, 61, could face three-and-a-half to seven years in prison. He faced two counts of child endangerment charges and one count of conspiracy. Only one child endangerment charge was upheld by the jury Friday.

“Priests should be people you can trust,” said Dorothea Christian, 61, of Newtown Township on Friday. “To hear about these kinds of things is horrifying.”

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WISCONSIN
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: A Green Bay diocesan priest, Feeney has been accused of sexually abusing many children, male and female, throughout his career. At least 12 have come forward. He was moved among 18 parishes in the diocese within 30 years. In 1978 the parents of two young teenage brothers reported to diocesan officials and police that Feeney had molested their boys. The parents dropped the charges when the diocese told them the problem would be taken care of. In 1979 two mothers went to law enforcement officials with complaints about Feeney, but were persuaded by a prosecutor not to press charges. In 1983 Green Bay bishop Wycislo told Feeney that unless he found a job in another diocese he would face going to treatment, or prosecution. Feeney found work as a priest in San Diego, CA and Las Vegas, NV parishes, and in Nevada prisons. He was removed from ministry in 1986 after being accused of smuggling drug paraphernalia and women’s underwear into a Nevada prison in exchange for sex with prisoners. Feeney was arrested in 2002 for the 1978 sexual assaults of the two young brothers in Wisconsin. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Feeney was defrocked by the Vatican in 2005. He was released from prison to a Wisconsin halfway house in Nov. 2011, and is a registered sex offender.

Ordained: 1952

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ROME
Irish Examiner

By TP O’Mahony

Saturday, June 23, 2012

THE firing on May 24 of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the president of the Vatican Bank, because of a failure to “promote transparency”, must have sent a frisson of fear through the upper echelons of the Roman Curia, coming as it did three decades after another scandal involving the same institution.

The fall-out from the tragic events of 1982 still reverberate, and the police file on the death of Roberto Calvi, head of Banco Ambrosiano in Milan, is still open. It was that bank’s close links with the Vatican and its involvement in money laundering that led to a huge scandal.

To experienced Vatican watchers — mindful that in March this year the US State Department, for the first time, included the Vatican in the list of states deemed to be “vulnerable” to money laundering operations— it was surely a case of plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Just before the sacking of the head of the Vatican Bank, an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, published His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. The book, based on leaked documents from the papal apartments — the so-called “Vatileaks” controversy — contains a mixture of revelations, including some about clashes over the management of the Vatican Bank.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Bilgrimage

In Philadelphia today, the jury in the Philadelphia abuse trial found Msgr. William Lynn guilty of child endangerment. Brian Roewe reports on this story at National Catholic Reporter. Jerry Slevin, a Harvard-trained lawyer who has closely followed this trial, has sent the following powerful statement about the verdict:

A Philly jury, that included several Catholics, has found a former top aide to two prominent Philly Catholic Cardinals guilty of endangering children who were sexually assaulted by predatory priests as described here and here.

The Cardinals’ aide, Monsignor Lynn, offered as his main defense that he was only following the Cardinals’ orders pursuant to the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese’s massive child abuse cover-up program that continued for decades until as late as last year at least.

The Cardinals had very close ties to the Vatican. One of them, Cardinal Rigali, worked closely with the current pope in Rome for over a decade and was St. Louis mentor for New York’s Cardinal Dolan, head of the American bishops.

The trial revealed in detail a cover-up program that appears to be standard operating procedure in the Catholic Church worldwide.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Huffington Post

The Associated Press | June 23, 2012

One of the recurring themes in this case was: Who would believe a kid? The answer is: We here in Bellefonte, Pa., would believe a kid.” – Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly after retired Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday of child sex abuse.
___

“Lynn was a smart, able manager who at any time could have called the police, warned parishes or threatened to blow the whistle. He was not a helpless good guy. The only helpless people in this ongoing catastrophe were the children, the many hundreds of boys and girls who were sodomized and terrorized by the men Lynn managed.” – Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, after Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn was convicted Friday of one count of child endangerment and faces up to seven years in prison.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By George Jackson
Saturday, 23 June 2012

A pensioner priest could not eat or sleep after police informed him that he had been accused of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl, a court was told.

Fr Eugene Boland denies five charges of indecent assault between June 1990 and 1992 in the parochial house of St Joseph’s parish in the Galliagh area of Londonderry when he was the parish administrator.

The 66-year-old from Killyclogher Road in Omagh told Derry Crown Court yesterday: “I remember I could not sleep, I could not eat. I was horrified.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM

PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide, was found guilty Friday of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

The 12-member jury acquitted Monsignor Lynn, of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment after a trial that prosecutors and victims rights groups called a turning point in the abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

The single guilty verdict was widely seen as a victory for the district attorney’s office, which has been investigating the archdiocese aggressively since 2002, and it was hailed by victim advocates who have argued for years that senior church officials should be held accountable for concealing evidence and transferring predatory priests to unwary parishes. …

Victims advocates said that they hoped the conviction would embolden prosecutors in other states to investigate senior church officials, and predicted that it would lead to more victim lawsuits.

“The guilty verdict sends a strong and clear message that shielding and enabling predator priests is a heinous crime that threatens families, communities and children, and must be punished as such,” said Barbara Dorris, of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PBS Newshour

[with video]

Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: A jury convicted a U.S. church official for the first time for the handling and cover-up of sexual abuse claims.

Sixty-one-year-old Monsignor William Lynn of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was found guilty of child endangerment. Prosecutors said he recommended reassigning priests accused of abuse to unsuspecting parishes when he served as secretary of the clergy from 1992 to 2004. The jury acquitted him on one count of conspiracy and another of endangerment. He could face up to seven years in prison.

The jury could not agree on a verdict for his co-defendant, Rev. James Brennan. He was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

After the verdict, district attorney Seth Williams had this to say.

SETH WILLIAMS, Philadelphia district attorney: What happened here was unspeakable. People who knew that these were predators were much more concerned with the institution than the victims of sexual assault. They failed to recognize that the church is its people.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and Julie Zauzmer
Inquirer Staff Writers

In the end, jurors said, it was not about the Catholic Church or the prosecution’s carefully crafted litany of Philadelphia priests who over the years abused children and got away with it.

It was about two people and what they did, and what prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt, said Isa Logan, foreman of the 12 Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jurors in the landmark Catholic Church sex-abuse trial.

Logan, 35, a muscular, 6-foot-6 Army veteran, bank worker, and deacon of a nondenominational West Philadelphia church, met with reporters Friday afternoon and, above the noise of traffic around City Hall, tried to give some insight into the jurors’ deliberations.

“We followed the court’s instructions and the evidence,” said Logan, a father of three who said he gained a new appreciation for the vulnerability of children.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Ventura County Star

The Associated Press
Posted June 23, 2012

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Attorneys representing a California man charged with assaulting a priest who he claims raped him decades ago want a judge to declare a mistrial.

The attorneys have said that a prosecutor committed misconduct in handling the priest’s testimony. The defense attorneys accuse the prosecutor of knowingly allowing false testimony, known as “suborning perjury.”

Father Jerold Lindner denied under oath on the witness stand Wednesday that he molested William Lynch during a 1975 camping trip.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Published: Saturday, June 23, 2012

A look at the week that was, the issues and people who made headlines, and a few darts and laurels for those who deserve them.

LAUREL: To the jury that took on the grueling Philly priest sex-abuse case. They heard 10 weeks of testimony, then deliberated 13 days before delivering a split verdict. It was a thankless task, but they performed their civic duty.

DART: To the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Monsignor William Lynn now becomes the first high-ranking church official to be convicted in connection with priest sexual abuse. He was convicted of one count of child endangerment, but was acquitted on another endangerment count as well as conspiracy. The jury was deadlocked on both charges against the Rev. James Brennan and a mistrial was declared. There are no winners in this case, only a terrible sadness.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

[2005 Grand Jury report – BishopAccountability.org]

By Robert Moran
Inquirer Staff Writer

Msgr. William J. Lynn was a top aide to Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, but little was known publicly about him when his name first surfaced amid the initial allegations of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as a church official investigating the claims.

In 2005, he suddenly became a central figure in a 418-page grand jury report accusing church leaders, including Bevilacqua, of failing to take appropriate actions when priests were accused of abuse. Lynn’s name was mentioned 652 times in the report.

He was found guilty Friday of one count of child endangerment, becoming the highest-ranking church official in the country to be convicted of such a crime.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
U-T San Diego

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic church official was convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy Friday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims.

Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in the ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said.

Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, mostly under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

“Many in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia hierarchy had dirty hands,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said. Williams said he didn’t have sufficient evidence last year to charge other officials, including Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88. Lynn had faced about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three counts he faced — conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment. He was convicted of a single endangerment count, which carries a possible 3½- to seven-year prison term.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By PHIL HERON,
editor@delcotimes.com
@philheron

One was the smiling, grandfatherly architect of Penn State’s legendary defense, the man who put together ‘Linebacker U.’

The other was a former high-ranking official of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, now a parish priest. Not just any parish priest – my parish priest.

This morning both are in jail.

And maybe the rest of us can start to see our way out of this prison of grim daily reports on the horrific things adults can do to children.

To be honest, I’m a little numb. And just overwhelmingly sad.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquiry

[2011 Grand Jury report]

By David O’Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer

The 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that accused Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment did much more than set in motion the landmark felony trial that ended Friday with his conviction.

The 124-page report – which charged the archdiocese with keeping in active ministry 37 priests accused of inappropriate behavior with children – triggered a series of actions by the local church to finally deal forcefully with the simmering sexual-abuse scandal.

Within days of the report’s release, then-archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali placed 21 of the accused priests on administrative leave (the other 16 were already removed from ministry or had no substantial charges against them), and hired former sex-crimes prosecutor Gina M. Smith to assemble a team of law-enforcement and child-abuse experts to investigate the charges.

Last month, Rigali’s successor, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, announced that five of the accused priests would be permanently removed from ministry as a result of that investigation and that three had been exonerated.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly, Jennifer Lin, Melissa Dribben, and Anthony R. Wood
Inquirer Staff Writers

As news circulated Friday afternoon that a jury had found Msgr. William J. Lynn guilty of child endangerment, many around the region praised the decision as fair, while some found it too gentle and a few maintained that the priest should have been set free.

“He only got one count?” asked Erin McGonigal, 31, who gasped when told of the verdict.

“What about all the kids, all the people who suffered?” she asked, standing outside Immaculate Mary nursing home in Northeast Philadelphia. She expressed doubt that Lynn would get the maximum prison sentence of seven years.

Her mother, Marybeth McGonigal, 57, said Lynn had officiated at her wedding in 1980 at St. Bernard’s parish in Frankford. Although she thought he was likable and “hip” at the time, she said she now found it “scary” that he married her and her husband.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Moments after he had been convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, Msgr. William J. Lynn bowed his head at the defense table. The issue now was whether his bail would be revoked, and the speaker was Lynn’s longtime antagonist, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington.

The monsignor had just been convicted of a third-degree felony that “calls for a lengthy jail sentence,” Blessington roared. “Let’s start it today. That’s justice.”

The monsignor had his back to courtroom spectators, but everybody could see the back of his neck and his ears turning bright red.

Moments later, family members wept silently as the monsignor was led away by sheriff’s deputies. “Oh God,” one young woman sobbed. His shame was now complete. Lynn would spend the night as the newest inmate at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, known as CFCF, at 7901 State Road in Northeast Philadelphia.

Outside the Criminal Justice Center, Father James J. Brennan walked out into the mid-afternoon heat and was immediately surrounded by reporters and TV cameras.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writers

A jury convicted Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment Friday, finding that as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia secretary for clergy, he ignored credible warning signs about a priest who later sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy.

The verdict, after a three-month trial, marked the first time since the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted nationally a decade ago that a Catholic Church supervisor had been found criminally liable for child-sex crimes by a priest.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina immediately revoked Lynn’s bail, and deputy sheriffs escorted the white-haired monsignor to a holding cell. Lynn faces up to seven years in prison, and prosecutors vowed to seek a term near the maximum.

The jury of seven men and five women acquitted Lynn on two other counts and deadlocked on attempted-rape and child-endangerment charges against his codefendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan.

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

By The Associated Press
Posted: 06/22/2012

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Attorneys representing a man accused of assaulting a priest he claims raped him decades ago are seeking a mistrial.

The attorneys claimed Friday that prosecutors committed misconduct in their handling of the priest’s testimony.

Father Jerold Lindner denied on Wednesday that he molested William Lynch during a 1975 camping trip. Lynch has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Lindner in 2010 and his trial started Wednesday.

During her opening statements, Santa Clara County deputy district attorney Vicki Gemetti told the jury that Lindner did molest Lynch. Gemetti predicted Lindner would deny the molestation, but urged the jury to convict Lynch anyway.

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CALIFORNIA
KTVU

KTVU.com and Wires

SAN JOSE, Calif. —

The defense attorneys for a man accused of the 2010 beating of a Jesuit priest he says molested him as a child, have filed a motion requesting a mistrial in the case on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct.

Will Lynch, 44, allegedly attacked the Rev. Jerold Lindner at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos on May 10, 2010.

His trial on assault charges began in San Jose on Monday amid a firestorm of accusations of sexual abuse by Lindner, who Lynch said sexually abused him and his brother on a camping trip when he was 7-years old.

Paul Mones, co-counsel in Lynch’s defense along with Pat Harris, said he believes prosecutorial misconduct occurred when Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti told the jury in opening statements that Lindner would probably lie about having molested Lynch and his brother.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

By John W. Goodwin Jr.
jgoodwin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Diocese of Youngstown has issued a statement saying a priest was not wrong for failing to notify police about information he received years ago concerning the molestation of an underage girl.

Michael Parent, 55, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to 13 years in prison for raping his stepdaughter for years while living in Mahoning County. The rapes began in 1984 when the girl was 5 and did not end until 1996 when she was almost 18.

The victim, who is now 34, told authorities she went to the Rev. Michael Seifert and spoke about the assaults when she was 15, but the matter was never taken to police.

The diocese, in a press release issued Thursday afternoon, said it was not made aware of the issue or the allegations that Father Seifert did not report what the girl said to authorities until a story appeared in Thursday’s Vindicator, but church officials maintain that a priest cannot divulge information given in confidence.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WKBN

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown released a statement on Thursday explaining the sacred laws of confession after a story that ran in the Youngstown Vindicator on Thursday stated a priest did not report child abuse allegations to police.

The victim, who is now 34, was 15 at the time. She allegedly told Rev. Michael Seifert during a confession that her stepfather, Michael Parent, raped her. Parent was sentenced to 13 years in prison earlier this week because of the assaults.

The Diocese said if the victim confided during confession, the seal of confession cannot be broken under any circumstance.

“It is because of the sacred nature of that sacrament, the content of it, that it is protected by the seal of confession in church law, and respected by civil law,” said Fr. John Jerek of the Diocese of Youngstown.

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

Karina Rusk

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — Attorneys for Will Lynch, accused of beating former priest Jerry Lindner, who he says abused him, have filed a motion for a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct.

Lynch is accused of tracking down and beating Father Jerry Lindner at his church retirement facility in Los Gatos in 2010, but he claims Lindner molested him in the 1970s.

The deputy district attorney, in her opening statement Thursday, said the former priest would probably lie about molesting Lynch and his brothers. When asked under oath, Lindner did indeed deny the molestation providing the basis for the request for a mistrial, perjury, which the prosecutor herself predicted.

Lindner had never been in a courtroom before and never had to answer to charges of molestation because of the court’s statute of limitations. This case was a way for Lynch, one of the men who says he was horrifically abused by Father Lindner, to put him on the stand.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

Reporter Elizabeth Fielder discusses the prosecution’s strategy and the case’s outcome. The audio above includes comments from the jury foreman, a defense attorney and District Attorney Seth Williams.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel

Claiming that the prosecutor in the San Jose priest-beating trial committed misconduct, defense attorneys Friday asked the judge to declare a mistrial based on the explosive accusation.

Attorneys for Will Lynch — who is accused of beating up the Jesuit priest he says brutally molested him and his brother when they were children — claim the prosecutor committed misconduct by suborning perjury.

Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti, they contend, put Father Jerold Lindner on the stand Wednesday after announcing to the jury he would almost certainly lie under oath by denying the alleged molestation.

As predicted, Lindner testified he had not raped Lynch when he was 7 or molested his 4-year-old brother on a camping trip in the 1970s in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic News Agency

Philadelphia, Pa., Jun 22, 2012 / 04:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In response to the jury decision in the trial of former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official Monsignor William J. Lynn, the archdiocese has offered a “heartfelt apology” to all abuse victims and expressed commitment to child safety and “reform and renewal.”

“This has been a difficult time for all Catholics, especially victims of sexual abuse,” the archdiocese said June 22. “The lessons of the last year have made our Church a more vigilant guardian of our people’s safety.”

A Philadelphia jury on Friday convicted Msgr. Lynn, the former secretary of clergy under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, on a count of child endangerment for failing to protect children from abusive priests.

Prosecutors argued that Msgr. Lynn’s actions showed a pattern by Church officials to cover up the abuse, but the jury found him not guilty on a conspiracy charge and a second count of endangerment.

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CALIFORNIA
Navy Times

By Gidget Fuentes – Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 22, 2012

SAN DIEGO — The Marine Corps has formally charged a Navy chaplain at the Marine Corps’ desert training base with several counts of alleged misconduct, including sexual harassment, indecent conduct, assault and fraternization, a spokesman confirmed Friday.

The chaplain, Lt. Cmdr. Steven E. Hicks, is scheduled to appear July 24 at an Article 32 investigation hearing at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., said Marine Capt. Nick Mannweiler, a combat center spokesman.

Hicks, 57, is a Catholic priest assigned who arrived at Twentynine Palms in 2008. He was pulled from his religious duties after allegations surfaced and an investigation began in late February, Mannweiler said. He remains assigned to the combat center staff.

Mannweiler said he did not have information about the nature of the charges, and he said he could not provide a copy of the official charge sheet that details the allegations. The Article 32 officer will preside over the preliminary hearing and recommend whether the charges against Hicks should be sent to a court-martial, be reduced or dismissed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Seattle PI

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 03:37 p.m., Friday, June 22, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic church official was convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy Friday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims.

Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said. …

The defense also pledged to appeal the conviction.

“He’s upset. He’s crushed. He’s in custody and he didn’t want anything else but to help kids,” defense lawyer Jeffrey M. Lindy said. …

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, called the verdict “a watershed moment” in the priest sex-abuse crisis.

“Lynn was a smart, able manager who at any time could have called the police, warned parishes, or threatened to blow the whistle,” McKiernan said. “He was not a helpless good guy. The only helpless people in this ongoing catastrophe were the children, the many hundreds of boys and girls who were sodomized and terrorized by the men Lynn managed.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Wall Street Journal

By STEVE EDER, JENNIFER LEVITZ and PETER LOFTUS

PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia jury delivered a sharp rebuke of the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse by its priests, convicting for the first time a senior church official of not taking steps that could have prevented further attacks.

Msgr. William Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, was found guilty on Friday of one count of child endangerment for allowing a priest to take a new assignment involving contact with children even after learning of allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate contact with at least one minor. The jury deadlocked in the case of another priest who was overseen by Msgr. Lynn and also on trial, the Rev. James Brennan.

The landmark ruling came after jurors heard nearly 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that opened a window into how one of the nation’s largest Catholic dioceses grappled with the sort of allegations that have shaken the church for more than a decade.

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UNITED STATES
The Christian Century

Jun 22, 2012 by David Gibson

(RNS) A popular online advice columnist has said that the late Rev. Robert Drinan, a famed Jesuit priest and onetime Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, tried to kiss and fondle her in the 1970s when she was 18 or 19 years old.

Emily Yoffe, who writes Slate’s “Dear Prudence” column, said she was prompted to write her first-person account after reading coverage of the trial of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who is charged with raping and molesting 10 boys.

In the column, published Thursday (June 21), Yoffe said she was sexually assaulted three times before she turned 20.

The first episode took place was when she was 9 years old and a 15-year-old cousin tried to fondle her; the second was at age 15 when the father of a school friend drove her home and tried to kiss and grope her before she fled the car.

The third attack, she said, allegedly occurred when Drinan, who died in 2007, drove her home after a fundraiser for his reelection campaign; Drinan was first elected to Congress in 1970 on an anti-war platform and served five terms until then-Pope John Paul II said priests could not run for elected office.

Yoffe, whose family supported Drinan, wrote that as the priest was dropping her off in his car, he “began jabbering incoherently about men and women” and then tried to kiss her and ran his hands over her breasts. She said she shoved him away and scrambled out of the car, leaving a smear of pink lipstick on his clerical collar.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Christian Post

By Jeff Schapiro , Christian Post Reporter

June 22, 2012|5:21 pm

The Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is still dealing with the fallout of a sex abuse scandal, announced Thursday that it will be cutting 45 jobs due to financial difficulties that have been building up for years.

Archbishop Charles Chaput says the massive legal and professional costs associated with the sex abuse cases had little to do with the decision to cut jobs. Instead, he says, it was based on a long overdue need to restructure, and a desire to cut down the archdiocese’s projected deficit of more than $17 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

“These are good men and women who have served the Church well,” said Chaput in a statement. “I take this action with great reluctance, as one of several urgently needed steps to restore the local Church to a healthy financial footing. Every departing employee has the sincere gratitude of the Archdiocese and will be treated with maximum consideration.”

In addition to cutting dozens of jobs, the archdiocese will merge 19 of its offices and ministries. It has also decided to suspend the publication of Phaith Magazine, and will cease publishing its 117-year-old newspaper, The Catholic Standard & Times, which published its last issue in June.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Press TV (Iran)

Msgr. William J. Lynn was found guilty Friday of one count of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted for covering up child sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

The 12-member jury acquitted him on a conspiracy charge and a second count of endangerment after a three-month trial that prosecutors and victims rights groups considered a milestone in the sexual abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

But the mixed verdict was widely seen as a victory for the district attorney’s office in Philadelphia, which has been investigating the archdiocese aggressively since 2002 and for victim advocates, who have argued for years that senior officials should be held accountable.

The trial has already sent a sobering message to church officials and others overseeing children around the country, a message punctuated by Monsignor Lynn’s conviction on a charge that could bring a prison term of three-and-a-half to seven years.

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UNITED STATES
EIN News

/EINPresswire.com/ (Plymouth Meeting, PA)— American Catholic Dioceses have spent $2.1 billion so far on settlement-related costs for the multi-decade sexual abuse scandals involving their priests and bishops, reports Reuters.

Recently, American cardinal Joseph William Levada announced that more than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse of children by priests have been investigated during the last ten years.

“The number is shocking and dramatic but, sadly, more cases are likely to emerge,” says Peter S. Pelullo, a frequent guest on the Dr. Drew show and author of the recently released
book “Betrayal and the Beast.”

In his book Mr. Pelullo focuses on his own journey as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and sexual predation. For many years he kept hidden and refused to face his own debilitating issues as a survivor—the shame, frustration, multiple addictions, depression, and other influences that directly impacted his life. Finally, at the age of fifty-five, Mr. Pelullo confronted the sexual abuse he endured as a child.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

By PATTI MENGERS
pmengers@delcotimes.com, @pattimengers

Boston may be where the national clerical sex abuse scandal was first exposed when a priest was convicted of child molestation in 2002, but Philadelphia will be remembered as the place where a church official was first held criminally liable for not stopping the abuse.

Friday’s child endangerment conviction of the Rev. Msgr. William Lynn by a Philadelphia jury for allowing a known pedophile priest to have continued access to youngsters while he was secretary for clergy is precedent-setting, said Anne Bowen Poulin, a law professor at the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Radnor.

“What it shows is that the church documented so much of this history of abuse within the church. This signals to prosecutors that this evidence may be available,” said Poulin, who has taught at the Roman Catholic university since 1981.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Christian Century

Jun 22, 2012 by David Gibson

(RNS) A Philadelphia priest was convicted Friday (June 22) of one count of child endangerment, becoming the first cleric in the Catholic Church’s long-running clergy abuse scandal to be tried and found guilty of shielding molesters.

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, was acquitted of conspiracy and a second endangerment charge after a three-month trial that had seemed on the verge of a hung jury two days earlier.

After a day off on Thursday, the jury of seven men and five women returned to deliberations Friday and by early afternoon announced the conviction on a single charge against Lynn. The jurors said they were deadlocked on attempted rape and endangerment charges against Lynn’s codefendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan. …

“This day — and the relief, vindication and healing it gives clergy sex abuse victims — is long overdue,” said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “The guilty verdict sends a strong and clear message that shielding and enabling predator priests is a heinous crime that threatens families, communities and children, and must be punished as such.”

Terence McKiernan, head of BishopAccountability.org, another victim advocacy group, called Lynn’s conviction “a watershed moment in the Catholic abuse crisis.”

“It is a warning to other church officials and a model to prosecutors nationwide,” McKiernan said. “Because of the Lynn verdict, bishops and church officials are now accountable — they are no longer immune from judgment and punishment.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Los Angeles Times

By David Zucchino

June 22, 2012, 1:31 p.m.
A Pennsylvania jury Friday convicted Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment for covering up sexual abuse of children by priests, but found the former Philadelphia archdiocese official not guilty of conspiracy and another endangerment charge.

Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic official in the U.S. to be tried and convicted on charges related to the church scandal in which priests across the country sexually abused children for years. In the landmark case, prosecutors said Lynn reassigned pedophile priests in Philadelphia while covering up allegations of sexual abuse.

The jury of seven men and five women deadlocked on attempted rape and child endangerment charges against the Rev. James J. Brennan, prompting the judge in the case to declare a mistrial on those charges. Prosecutors could decide to retry Brennan.

By assigning pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes, prosecutors said, Lynn exposed more children to potential abuse in an attempt to protect the church’s reputation and stave off lawsuits. Prosecutors produced a list that Lynn compiled in 1994 naming 37 priests in the archdiocese who had been identified as pedophiles or were suspected of sexually abusing children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
AFP

By Daniel Kelley (AFP)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — A Philadelphia monsignor became Friday the highest-ranking US church official to be convicted over a child sex cover-up, as he was was found guilty of endangerment.

Monsignor William Lynn, who served as secretary of the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 1994 to 2001, was acquitted of two other counts — one of conspiracy and a second charge of child endangerment.

Lynn, 61, who took the witness stand for three days during his 10-week trial, is not charged with molesting children, but rather with covering up crimes of priests who did. His sentence is due to be announced on August 13.

The trial, the first in the United States involving a senior official in the Catholic Church, also centered on two other Philadelphia priests. …

“We needed clarity on how to apply the evidence. We needed to learn how to apply the elements of the charges,” jury foreman Isa Logan said. “Every juror wanted justice. We just wanted to do what was right.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABA Journal

Posted Jun 22, 2012
By Martha Neil

Monsignor William Lynn on Friday became the first senior Roman Catholic official in the U.S. to be criminally convicted concerning oversight of claimed child sex-abuse by priests.

He was found guilty of child endangerment after a jury deliberated for nearly two weeks, but acquitted of conspiracy and a second charge of child endangerment, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.

Lynn, who is now 61, had his bail revoked and was taken into custody after the verdict. He served from 1992 to 2004 as secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Most of that time, he worked under the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who was the final decision-maker concerning what to do with priests accused of abuse, according to trial testimony.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
BBC News

A high-ranking Philadelphia Roman Catholic Church official has been found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child in a sex abuse case.

Monsignor William Lynn was acquitted of two additional charges.

Prosecutors alleged that Lynn, who supervised hundreds of priests, helped cover-up child sex abuse, often by transferring priests to new parishes.

He is now the highest-ranking US Roman Catholic official convicted in connection in a wider scandal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
New Jersey Herald

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The jury foreman in a landmark priest sex-abuse case says he’d have taken a court-martial in the Army rather than follow unjust orders.

Thirty-5-year-old Isa (EE’-suh) Logan is a bank employee and deacon in his independent West Philadelphia church.

He’s the foreman of a jury that convicted Monsignor William Lynn on Friday over his handling of sex-abuse complaints at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The 61-year-old Lynn faces 3-1/2 to five years in prison for felony child endangerment, and is now in custody after his bail was revoked. He’s been acquitted of 2 other counts.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Jeffrey R. Anderson | 3:15 PM

A Philadelphia jury made history today when it found Msgr. William Lynn guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. The jury’s decision is historic and unprecedented. Until now no top Catholic official has been criminally convicted for child endangerment. The result of this difficult and arduous trial presents the first true day of reckoning in the criminal justice system against any top official in the Catholic church hierarchy.

For decades the top officials of the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and elsewhere, have operated above the law and with impunity, believing that they could not and would never be held accountable. Now, finally, because of courageous survivors, as well as prosecutors and law enforcement that were willing to take a stand, justice is served. With this justice comes great hope and promise to all those who have fought for so long.

We applaud the prosecutors, the survivors, and all those who contributed to the exposure of the truth. We are deeply grateful for the many survivors with whom we work. And we continue to be inspired by those who chose to break the silence and make their painful histories known in order to protect other kids. A new and better day is upon us and we’re proud to stand on the shoulders of the courageous survivors whom we work with every day.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

by Susan Matthews

For the first time ever, a jury has found a Catholic Church official guilty of child endangerment. It certainly wasn’t the first time one was guilty, but it’s an important step toward making it the last time. This verdict will do more to protect children than any Bishops’ charter or archdiocesan initiative. Why? Because now there is real accountability.

Msgr. Lynn faces jail but that is nothing compared to the life sentence the victims of his crime face. Despite that, this verdict is a victory.

As Kathy Kane wrote in our comments: ”Prior to the 2011GJ report there were 27 priests with abuse allegations/boundary issues in the Archdiocese. They were in our parishes, schools, CYO and Prep programs. Every single victim who has ever came forward, even if not involved in the trial, has kept our children protected, kept them safer than they ever would have been had the truth not been revealed. There is no amount of justice that could ever be served to the victims in the Philly AD for the years of horror that occurred, but your efforts have kept this generation of children safer from child predators. Each night when every victim closes their eyes, they can say that they protected children. Others have done just the opposite and some day will answer to a higher authority than any judge or jury. This trial produced a mixed bag of verdicts… a plea deal, an acquittal, hung jury and conviction. My verdict on what the victims have accomplished…Heroic.”

I couldn’t agree more. Children are safer.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee)

CONTACT: 414.429.7259

In a historic verdict today in Philadelphia, for the first time in the church child sex abuse crisis a top church official has been criminally convicted of child endangerment. Monsignor William J. Lynn served as secretary of clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004. The judge revoked Lynn’s bail and ordered him immediately to jail. He could face up to seven years in prison.

There is a Monsignor Lynn in every single diocese and religious order around the United States. That includes, of course, the Milwaukee Archdiocese, which is now in federal bankruptcy court, seeking to keep secret 40,000 pages of internal church files and testimony by former Milwaukee bishops concerning the transfer and concealment of child sex predators. Principally, Bishop Richard Sklba, who former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland testified was his “go to guy” on “all abuse cases”. Sklba remained the number two man of the diocese under Cardinal Timothy Dolan as well. Yet Sklba, unlike Lynn, has yet to face a single criminal charge for his decades long involvement in covering up child sex crimes, just like Lynn. And Sklba is not the only conspirator who endangered children in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Today’s verdict should send a chilling message to Sklba and every senior church official around the country: your boss—even if he is a cardinal or an archbishop–will no longer be able to protect you from following and implementing their child sex abuse cover up directives. From now on, the excuse, “I was just following orders” is not only a thoroughly discredited moral defense, but a legal one as well.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NECN

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A spokeswoman for a sexual abuse victims support group says the verdict in the Philadelphia priest abuse trial was heartbreaking.

Karen Polesir is a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She was outside the courthouse as the verdicts were being read.

Monsignor William Lynn has been convicted of child endangerment. He is the first U.S. church official convicted of a crime for mishandling sex-abuse accusations.

But Lynn also was acquitted of two counts. And jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict for his co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, who was accused of sexually abusing a teenager.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

Hear from Isa Logan, the first juror to talk today about the verdicts in the landmark priest sex abuse trial. Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of one count of child endangerment and not guilty on a second child endangerment charge. He is also not guilty of conspiracy. Jurors could not reach agreement on the attempted rape or child endangerment charge against Reverend James Brennan.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The jury in Philadelphia has heard the cry of unprotected children and we are grateful.

We believe the cause of innocent children has been advanced today and we are grateful.

We believe all bishops and all chanceries staffs have effectively been put on notice that is criminally wrong to put the protection of adults, priests or any other adult, before the protection of innocent children—particularly when the children made their plight known to those in positions of moral and spiritual leadership. For this, we are grateful.

We believe there should not be a delay in the sentencing of Monsignor William Lynn. The jury has spoken: children need protection.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic League

The jury in the trial of two Philadelphia Catholic priests has reached a verdict. Msgr. William Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy; on the two charges of child endangerment, he was acquitted on one of them, and found guilty on the other. The jury was deadlocked on two charges against Rev. James Brennan: one for attempted rape, and one for child endangerment.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

The witch-hunt has come to an end, and those who have been clamoring for blood lost big time. What made this a witch-hunt was the decision of former Philadelphia D.A. Lynne Abraham to summarily ignore what she was empowered to do in 2001: she was given the charge “to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by individuals associated with religious organizations and denominations.” Had she done so, those cases of minors who may have been sexually molested by ministers, rabbis, and others, would have been investigated. Instead, absolutely nothing was done about these cases.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin and Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Updated 3:25 p.m.

Jurors have reached an unprecedented decision in the landmark sex-abuse and child endangerment trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests.

Msgr. William J. Lynn, found guilty on one count of child endangerment, is the first church official nationwide to be convicted for enabling or covering up clergy-sex abuse. He faces up to seven years in prison.

Lynn was acquitted of two other charges, one of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment.

The jury was deadlocked on attempted rape and endangerment charges against his codefendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan.

The jury was excused by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, so the trial is over, with a mistrial on the Brennan charges.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

This has been a difficult time for all Catholics, especially victims of sexual abuse. The lessons of the last year have made our Church a more vigilant guardian of our people’s safety. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is on a journey of reform and renewal that requires honesty and hope. We are committed to providing support and assistance to parishioners as they and the Church seek to more deeply understand sexual violence, and to create an environment that is safe and welcoming to all, including past victims.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia offers a heartfelt apology to all victims of clergy sexual abuse. Now and in the future, the Church will continue to take vigorous steps to ensure safe church environments for all the faithful in Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on June 22, 2012

This day—and the relief, vindication and healing it gives clergy sex abuse victims—is long overdue. The guilty verdict sends a strong and clear message that shielding and enabling predator priests is a heinous crime that threatens families, communities and children, and must be punished as such. It is also the criminal justice system’s “shot across the bow,” sending a clear signal to all institutions: “Protect kids, oust predators or go to jail.”

The evidence against Msgr. Lynn was overwhelming. Perpetrators have been enabled and free to prey on children because Catholic officials like Lynn hid crimes, intimidated whistle blowers, discredited witnesses, destroyed evidence and fabricated alibis. This verdict provides a measure of justice for every child who was hurt in the archdiocese and was forced to suffer in shame and silence as their perpetrator roamed freely with the help and blessing of top church officials.

The unsung heroes of this case are the dozens of victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who bravely came forward to testify. Many told harrowing stories of how they were horribly abused by priests they trusted, while others explained their frustration when they went to church officials for help but were ignored, deceived and maligned. We are grateful to these courageous men and women for their efforts to protect kids, expose wrongdoing and get healing. They refused to remain silent and did the right thing by going to law enforcement and not church officials.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Peter Isely on June 22, 2012

We agree with prosecutors: Msgr. Lynn is a flight risk and should be jailed right now. That’s only prudent.

Time and time again over the years, Catholic officials who have committed or concealed child sex crimes have fled overseas. BishopAccountability.org

Why take this risk?

Msgr. Lynn’s been convicted of just one charge. But keep in mind that for at least 12 years, and likely longer, he suspected and knew of but concealed and enabled horrific child sex crimes by perhaps dozens of clerics. He and his current and former church supervisors have much to fear. He might very well flee abroad.

So let’s put justice and safety first, and lock up Msgr. Lynn right away.

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