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	Philadelphia Catholic Priests in Trouble over Sex Abuse Philadelphia Weekly February 10, 2011 http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2011/02/10/philadelphia-catholic-priests-in-trouble-over-sex-abuse/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=philadelphia-catholic-priests-in-trouble-over-sex-abuse Four Catholic priests and a teacher – including Monsignor William Lynn, the former head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Clergy – have been separately charged with instances of rape, sexual assault and, as is the case with Lynn, failing to protect children from sexual abuse by priests. DA Seth Williams has handed down the charges and announced them this morning at a news conference. Such an announcement, says the Inquirer, comes over five years since a Philadelphia grand jury published a report which found the Philadelphia Archdiocese ran an “immoral cover-up” of sexual abuse involving its clergy. Lynn is charged with the cover up, but Williams’ statements on the Monsignor don’t make him any less of an alleged monster than the others involved. He’s mentioned over 600 times in the Grand Jury report. Williams said Lynn, who was the Archdiocese’s Secretary of the Clergy from 1992 to 2004, “supervised two of the abusers . . . knew they were dangerous and chose to expose them to new victims.” […] As head of the clergy office, Lynn oversaw all priest personnel issues, which included advising Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and his successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, on the assignment of priests; interviewing persons who reported sexual abuse by a priests; and overseeing the treatment of clergy known to have abused children. The report acknowledges, “Secretary for Clergy Lynn . . . treated victims as potential plaintiffs. Not only did they not receive apologies acknowledging their abuse, but many were bullied, intimidated, lied to, even investigated themselves.” Those wondering if a priest can be charged for covering up crimes, check out LawInfo.com: A priest can be personally liable under state laws pertaining to sexual abuse of children for committing such abuse, as well as liable in his capacity as a priest and/or church employee. An individual priest may also be liable for failing to supervise, report, or otherwise discipline a priest who has committed sexual abuse with minors. Likewise, a Catholic diocese or the Catholic church as a whole may be liable for a priest’s sexual abuse of minors if it is aware of the abuse but fails to adequately remove the priest or take other steps to remedy the situation.
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