Philadelphia Jury Should Convict the Enabler

Pocono Record
June 5, 2012

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120605/NEWS04/206050319

Jurors in Philadelphia are now deliberating the fate of two Catholic priests, one of them a monsignor who's charged with endangering children and conspiring to cover up priest abuse.

It's hard to imagine that jurors could conclude anything other than guilty as charged.

Monsignor William Lynn served as secretary for clergy at the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. Evidence and his own testimony confirm that he knew, through his position, about hundreds of allegations made against more than 60 priests.

Yet he failed to prevent it, thus enabling wayward priests to continue endangering vulnerable children.

Lynn's co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, faces a charge stemming from an accusation that he molested a teenager in 1996.

The evidence supporting the Lynn charges is plentiful and plenty painful. Witness after witness testified to having been molested, but having their complaints fall on deaf ears. Documents, as well, pointed to Lynn's knowledge of the problem priests and the refusal of his then-superior, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, to address them. Lynn actually prepared a list in 1994 of priests, including three diagnosed pedophiles and 12 priests deemed guilty of being child predators. According to a memo that surfaced only this year, Bevilacqua ordered the list shredded.

But jurors also saw hundreds of other archdiocesan documents, among them memos Lynn wrote for secret church archives, alluding to problem priests.

In his defense, Lynn says he's been targeted unfairly for the sins of the church — that he tried to persuade Bevilacqua to remove the priests from positions where they could harm children, but had no authority to do more.

Jurors will have to ask themselves whether the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church trumps the rule of law that protects children from abuse. They will have to decide whether Lynn's claim that his hands were tied by the powerful prelate who supervised him excuses him from having failed, even once during the 12 years he served, to notify police that certain priests stood accused by parishioners of molesting children. They will have to decide whether loyalty to a higher power trumps a basic moral responsibility to vulnerable young children.

The 61-year-old Lynn is the first U.S. church official to face criminal charges for his administrative decisions regarding priests accused of sexual abuse. It's about time. He could spend as many as 21 years in jail if jurors convict him of both conspiracy and felony child endangerment. He should be convicted. Because he failed to speak out to authorities, who knows how many children became victims of known abusers?

No one is above the law, including the high and mighty in the powerful Roman Catholic Church.