Year in Review: Catholic Church Administrator Convicted in Scandal

By Sara Mosqueda-fernandez
Daily Local News
December 31, 2012

http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20121231/NEWS01/121239943/year-in-review-catholic-church-administrator-convicted-in-scandal

FILE - In a Tuesday, March 27, 2012 file photo, Monsignor William Lynn leaves the Criminal Justice Center, in Philadelphia. Lynn was the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up molestation claims against priests. He's serving three to six years in prison. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Monsignor William Lynn became the first U.S. church official criminally convicted for covering up abuse claims related to predator-priests.

Lynn, 61, was convicted of child endangerment, but acquitted of conspiracy in June. Lynn previously served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, mostly under the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

After 13 days of deliberating, jurors decided that Lynn endangered the victim of Edward Avery, a now defrocked priest, who pleaded guilty before trial to a sexual assault from 1999.

Avery is serving a 2?- to 5-year prison term. As secretary, Lynn sent Avery for sexual-offender treatment, but knew he was later sent to live in a parish.

Lynn, who also served as a pastor at St. Joseph’s in Downingtown, was the only church official charged. He was placed on leave in 2011.

A judge sentenced Lynn on July 24 to 3 to 6 years in prison.

Bevilacqua made the ultimate decision on how to deal with priests accused of abuse, transferring many of them to new parishes, according to testimony. He also ordered the shredding of a document that Lynn prepared in 1994, that listed three diagnosed pedophiles, twelve confirmed predators and 20 possible abusers within the archdiocese.