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	Priests in U.S. Sexual Abuse Scandal to Appear in Court By Katharine Q. Seelye New York Times March 14, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/15priests.html?_r=1 PHILADELPHIA — In what is believed to be the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal in the United States, a senior church official is to appear in court Monday on charges of covering up the activities of predator priests. Several priests have been tried and jailed over the years on charges of sexually abusing minors. But Msgr. William J. Lynn, a pastor who headed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's office of clergy from 1992 to 2004, is believed to be the first managerial-level official in the country to be charged not with abusing minors himself but with protecting those who did. Monsignor Lynn, 60, was indicted last month on two counts of endangering the welfare of children and was placed on administrative leave from his post as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown, Pa. He is contesting the charges and is to appear in court here in the first of what is likely to be many procedural steps toward a possible trial. He faces up to 14 years in prison. Analysts said Monsignor Lynn's indictment sent shock waves through chanceries across the country, serving as a warning that the secular criminal justice system was no longer afraid to reach into the church hierarchy and prosecute officials accused of participating in coverups. In four previous cases — in Boston, Cincinnati, Phoenix and Manchester, N.H. — prosecutors began criminal investigations of higher-ranking church officials, but for one reason or another, they stopped short of bringing charges, according to Terence McKiernan, president of 'Bisho_pAccountability.org, which tracks original documents on abuse cases nationally. Leonard Norman Primiano, a Catholic who heads the department of religious studies at Cabrini College in suburban Radnor, Pa., said Monsignor Lynn's court appearance "will be seen as one of those significant moments when the state is asking the church to pay for its inadequacies." Jeffrey Lindy, one of the lawyers representing Monsignor Lynn, said that whether civilian law trumps church law was "an interesting philosophical question, and it's certainly worthy of debate among ethicists." But, he said, prosecutors have not charged Monsignor Lynn with a philosophical quandary. "They have charged him with committing a crime, and they have to prove that he endangered the welfare of children," Mr. Lindy said. If the case goes to trial and a jury sees the facts, Mr. Lindy said, "they will see that he didn't." Monsignor Lynn is to appear with two priests, a defrocked priest and a parochial school teacher who are all charged with the sexual abuse of minors; Monsignor Lynn is accused of protecting the priests.
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