Catholic Group Calls Overturned Lynn Conviction “win for Justice”—but Is It?

Philadelphia Weekly
December 29, 2013

http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2013/12/30/msgr-lynn-overturned-conviction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=msgr-lynn-overturned-conviction


After serving 18 months in prison stemming from 2012 child endangerment charges, Philadelphia Msgr. William Lynn’s conviction was overturned last week.

The conviction stemmed from his covering up other priests’ sexual abuse and supervising priest Edward Avery as Avery was sexually abusing an altar boy in the 90s.

But the Pennsylvania Superior Court panel overturned the law because, they now say, the state’s child endangerment law was misapplied in this case.

At the time of the abuse, the law only applied to adults to regularly supervised children—not those who supervised other adults who supervised children. That law was broadened in 2007 to cover people like Lynn, when the abuse had already ended. And Lynn was the first conviction of someone who did not actually commit abuse, but supervised those who did.

Lynn was given bail this morning amidst expansive media coverage, claims of justice being served, and the promise of another appeal to the ruling.

While this is a pretty multifaceted case, some celebratory discussions of Lynn’s freedom seem a bit weird.

In an email sent out by the Catholic League, president Bill Donahue called the case a “witch-hunt” and “win for justice, and a tremendous setback for anti-Catholic bigots,” like the accuser, whom Donahue calls a liar and drug addict. Here are some excerpts:

Their goal is to “get a bishop,” and if that doesn’t work, then they settle for the next in line. They are fundamentally dishonest, and now they have been disabled…

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham began this witch-hunt—she was authorized to pursue sexual misconduct in all religious communities, but instead she selectively chose to focus exclusively on Catholics—and then she passed the baton to her successor, Seth Williams. All of them knew that Msgr. Lynn did not know, or know of, the drug-addicted, lying, scheming, accuser, Billy Doe. They also knew that laws applied ex post facto (e.g., the 2007 amendment of the 1972 child endangerment statute) would not stand scrutiny on appeal. But none of this mattered…

Msgr. Lynn spent 18 months in prison because of dishonest people who harbor an anti-Catholic agenda. We expect he will soon be released. God bless him.

I don’t write about the Catholic Church or the abuse cases too often here, and I don’t pretend to know every nuance of applying new laws to old cases—but the celebration of Lynn’s overturned conviction by Donahue is really strange. The facts from the case remain: He helped cover up priest abuse during his tenure as secretary of the Philadelphia clergy from 1992 to 2004.

As noted by two grand jury reports and the trial, Lynn and other officials “placed concern about scandal to the church above child welfare.”

And even the appeals court, which overturned the conviction, noted that the state had provided more than adequate evidence that Lynn “prioritized the archdiocese’s reputation over the safety of potential victims of sexually abusive priests.”

The law that makes doing that illegal just didn’t exist at the time of his what-would-now-be crimes. But that doesn’t mean Lynn is vindicated—far from it. And celebrating the loophole in an old law that had to be changed, in part, because of pedophile priests, doesn’t exactly seem like the Catholic thing to do.