BishopAccountability.org
	Ex-Top Catholic Official Put on Leave Bucks County Courier Times February 21, 2011 http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/28/2011/february/21/ex-top-catholic-official-put-on-leave.html Monsignor William Lynn was accused in a grand jury indictment of endangering children in his role as secretary for clergy. A former top Roman Catholic Church official in Philadelphia has been placed on administrative leave following charges of endangering children in connection with sexual abuse by priests. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Sunday that parishioners at St. Joseph Parish in Downingtown were informed in weekend Masses that Monsignor William Lynn was placed on administrative leave Friday. Lynn, 60, was secretary of the clergy and a top archdiocese official from 1992 to 2004. He was accused in a scathing grand jury report of putting pedophiles in posts where they had contact with youngsters. Felony endangering charges were filed against him earlier this month, and Lynn was also named in a civil lawsuit last week. Lynn's attorney has said that his client doesn't concede that he knew he was putting children at risk. Cardinal Justin Rigali has appointed Monsignor Joseph C. McLoone as parochial administrator pro-tem of St. Joseph. McLoone is currently the pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Chester, Delaware County, archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said. Lynn was charged by a grand jury earlier this month with endangering children in his role as secretary for clergy under former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Lynn, 60, had a duty to protect children in the five-county archdiocese and refer priests with known sexual problems for rehabilitation or prosecution, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said in announcing the charges. "The rapist priests we accuse were well-known to the secretary of clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again," the report said. Lynn, the first church official in the United States charged with a crime after being accused of keeping problem priests in jobs around children, could get up to 14 years in prison if convicted. Defense attorney Tom Bergstrom said Lynn will fight the charges on the grounds that he never supervised children and cannot therefore be charged with having endangered them. Three other current or former priests and a former Catholic school teacher were also charged by the grand jury with raping boys in the late 1990s. Among those charged was Bernard Shero, 48, of Bristol, who was accused of raping a boy from St. Jerome's School, where Shero taught sixth grade, according to the grand jury report released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Shero also held positions with parish schools at Immaculate Conception in Bristol Township, St. Joseph the Worker in Falls, Queen of the Universe (now Holy Family Regional Catholic School) in Middletown, St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown and St. Thomas Aquinas in Croydon, according to archdiocese officials. Shero and two priests, the Revs. Charles Engelhardt, 64, and Edward Avery, 68, are accused of raping the same 11-year-old boy. Another priest named in the report, the Rev. James Brennan, served as a parochial vicar at St. Andrew in Newtown Township and later taught in the elementary school at Assumption BVM in Lower Southampton. Brennan is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy years after he met him while at St. Andrew's.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.