“gunfight at Philly Corral” Lynn & Vatican Vs. US Law

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
December 29, 2013

http://christiancatholicism.com/gunfight-at-philly-corral-lynn-vatican-vs-us-law/

Philly’s Catholic DA, Seth Williams, is asking Jesuit educated Catholic trial judge, M. Teresa Sarmina, to deny bail to Cardinal Justin Rigali’s former top aide, Monsignor William Lynn, on the basis that Lynn is a “flight risk” who may seek refuge in the Vatican. Rigali had just been spotted on worldwide TV in the prime seats at Pope Francis’ Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican. Will Lynn soon be reuniting with his old boss?

Is there a risk of flight of a priest implicated in decisions that placed many children at risk of priest predators? Amazingly, Lynn’s lawyer suggested that Lynn be put back to Church work, which likely would give him access to children.

There is, of course, some risk Lynn would flee to the Vatican to avoid returning to prison. Recently, for example, an allegedly child abusing Archbishop fled to Rome from the Dominican Republic, as reported at:

[CNN]

And a Polish priest facing likely charges of child sexual abuse also recently fled the Dominican Republic for Poland, as reported at:

[BBC News]

And over recent decades, numerous foreign Catholic priests have fled possible US criminal proceedings, with few returning and apparently little help from the Vatican in getting them to return; see, “Fugitives from justice: Roman Catholic priests”, as reported at:

[Chicago Tribune]

For some of other important implications of the Lynn case, see, “Monsignor Lynn Proves Why President Obama Must Step Up”.

As part of the Vatican spinmeisters’ hyped “Francis phenomenon”, the world’s media have paid little attention to Francis’ evident avoidance of the priest child abuse scandal. That may be changing. The NY Times’ conservative Catholic columnist, Ross Douthat, at least, has in his recent bold column “scorned” the US media’s seeming free pass to Francis on this scandal, which is on the top of most US Catholics’ reform agenda.

Douthat, in pertinent part, indicated honestly in his latest NY Times column:

” … I was entirely wrong about the Vatican’s image being inextricably tied to the legacy of the sex-abuse crisis. To date, the new pope has done much less than the underappreciated Benedict on that front, but nobody in the Western press seems to care: even as American bishops continue to mishandle abuse cases, Francis’s blend of charisma, asceticism and inclusivity have been sufficient to reverse a decade of bad press for Catholicism… “

Douthat then adds: ” … that [media] blindness still needs to be addressed, and it’s troubling, and telling, that the media would give a more liberal-seeming pope a pass on an issue they hammered his predecessor on at every opportunity. And if I’d been just a little more cynical about these things, I probably would have seen it coming.”

When Francis is described by a prominent US Catholic conservative as doing even less than the ex-Pope to protect children from predatory priests and unaccountable bishops, Francis’ free ride on failing to act to curtail priest abuse may soon be ending.

As to Lynn, as amply reported by former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Ralph Cipriano, and by others, an appellate panel on December 26th reversed, on a technical issue of interpretation under a new statute, Lynn’s “historic” 2012 conviction on one count of endangering the welfare of a child. The panel did not dispute the trial court’s view that Lynn risked many childrens’ safety often to protect predatory priests.

Lynn was labeled a “flight risk” in an answer to a petition for a bail hearing filed by Hugh J. Burns, Jr., chief of the D.A.’s appeals unit. The monsignor is a “high ranking official [in] a worldwide organization, the Roman Catholic Church, that has both diplomatic and non-diplomatic facilities in many nations,” Burns wrote.

Burns noted that the evidence presented at Lynn’s trial “established that numerous individuals within that organization are closely associated with [Lynn] and may be willing to improperly assist him out of personal interest without proper sanction … ”

In his brief, D.A. Burns pointed out:

“The Holy See maintains diplomatic relations with 179 sovereign states, including every nation in the Western hemisphere, Europe, India, and all but three countries in Africa,” Burns wrote. The D.A.’s office in the past has consulted with William Nardini, a Department of Justice attache to Rome, and “Mr. Nardini confirmed that the Vatican City State has no extradition treaty with the United States,” Burns wrote.

Burns added that officials within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia “are sympathetic to defendant, and possibly disposed to assist him, without regard to his conduct endangering children.”

Burns noted that letting Lynn out of jail now would be “premature” because the appeal process has not been exhausted.

Of course, Lynn’s old boss, Rigali, may currently still be at the Vatican. And he seemingly owes Lynn big time for taking the “fall” for the hierarchical team.

Whatever else the Lynn reversal may have effected, it has reminded US Catholics that little has changed so far under Pope Francis on holding the hierarchy accountable for covering up for priests who rape children.