Editorial: Archdiocese Officials Have Only Themselves to Blame

Daily Times
February 1, 2012

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/02/01/opinion/doc4f28b7a69db95279271426.txt

As Roman Catholic educators hoping to save their schools from closure or merger race to meet today's deadline to appeal recommendations from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, archdiocesan officials are dealing with their own rejected appeal.

On Monday Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina upheld her November decision to allow testimony from former Philadelphia archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, to be included in next month's clerical sex abuse trial.

That will not happen now. Cardinal Bevilacqua died late last night after a long battle with cancer and dementia.

Charged with sexually assaulting a Philadelphia altar boy in the 1990s are defrocked archdiocesan priest Edward Avery, last known to be living in Haverford, and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, who is out of active ministry. Also charged with abusing the same boy is former Catholic lay teacher Bernard Shero, who will be tried separately. Being tried with Avery and Engelhardt is the Rev. James Brennan, who formerly taught at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Marple and is now out of active ministry. He is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy during a leave of absence from his ministry in 1996.

A co-defendant in the priests' trial is the Rev. Monsignor William Lynn who served as secretary for clergy from 1992-2004 under Bevilacqua and was responsible for investigating clerical sexual abuse. He is charged with endangering the welfare of children for allegedly allowing known pedophiles to still have access to them instead of turning the suspects over to civil authorities. He has also been charged with conspiracy.

Lynn has the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. church official ever charged for administrative failings in the clerical sex abuse scandal that broke nationwide in 2002 after a Boston priest was convicted of child molestation.

Charges against all the defendants arose as a result of a grand jury investigation launched by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who released the findings a year ago. It was the second Philadelphia grand jury investigation of clerical sexual abuse. The first, launched by former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, revealed in 2005 that 63 priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia allegedly abused children as far back as the 1940s. None could be prosecuted because of the expired statute of limitations which, in 2006, was expanded to age 50 for victims.

Twenty-six priests named in the second grand jury report have been put on administrative leave by archdiocesan officials who are reviewing complaints against them ranging from sexual abuse of minors to "boundary issues." At least nine have ties to Delaware County, including two pastors and a parochial vicar.

Defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom had filed a motion to disqualify Bevilacqua and his sworn deposition from the upcoming trial because, he maintained, the 88-year-old retired cardinal suffers from dementia and remembers nothing from the last two decades.

But prosecutors saw Bevilacqua, who has not been charged, as representative of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia which, last week in court, they referred to as "an unindicted co-conspirator" in the child sex abuse cases.

The cardinal's deposition that was videotaped last November may now be used during the trial, which is expected to begin March 26.

Prosecutors are determined to prove that Lynn, Bevilacqua and the archdiocese had a pattern of endangering children by introducing evidence of how the careers of 27 other priests "credibly accused" of sexual abuse were handled. Defense attorneys feel introducing evidence involving other priests will prejudice the jury against their clients. Sarmina has promised to rule on the matter by next Monday.

Lynn's lawyers reportedly fear he is being made a scapegoat for dozens of Philadelphia priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, but were never prosecuted. The archdiocese's own records, reviewed by the two grand juries, are indeed testament to the fact that there were Philadelphia priests who abused children long before Lynn or Bevilacqua were in office.

Archdiocesan officials have nobody else to blame but themselves for the fact that one man may pay the price for the sins of many. Lynn's potential incarceration is yet another byproduct of their failure to put the safety of children above the coffers of the church.