Editorial: Catholic Church leaders must be accountable for abuse

Daily Times
April 28, 2015

http://www.delcotimes.com/opinion/20150428/editorial-catholic-church-leaders-must-be-accountable-for-abuse

In the last month, convictions of two priests who were found guilty of charges related to child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been upheld by higher courts.

In 2013, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church in northeast Philadelphia from 1998 to 1999 while the priest was in residence there.

Engelhardt denied the allegations and appealed the verdict, but died last November of an apparent heart condition while in the second year of a six-to-12-year sentence at the Coal Township Prison in Northumberland County.

State law required that the priest’s appeal be continued. On March 25, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed Engelhardt’s convictions of endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and indecent assault.

That same week, the conviction of former Catholic school lay teacher, Bernard Shero, was upheld for assaulting the same boy. That child was also assaulted by former Haverford resident Edward Avery, a priest who was defrocked in 2006 because church officials found allegations of sexual abuse against him credible.

He was to be the co-defendant of the Rev. Msgr. William Lynn, but pleaded guilty to abusing the St. Jerome’s altar boy in 1999 just four days before the trial started March 26, 2012. Avery was sentenced to two-and-a-half to five years in prison.

On June 22, 2012 a Philadelphia jury found Lynn guilty of one felony count of endangering the welfare of children. His conviction was connected to Avery and the assault of the St. Jerome altar boy. The prosecution maintained that Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy from 1992 until 2004 under the now-late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and was responsible for investigating clerical sexual abuse, was aware of Avery’s history of pedophilia before Avery was transferred to St. Jerome’s parish.

During Lynn’s trial, jurors learned that the monsignor had assembled a “secret file” of known or suspected pedophile priests that, in 1994, Bevilacqua — a canon and a civil attorney — ordered shredded. Prosecutors got to see the list after a copy of it was found in 2012 in an archdiocesan safe. When Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina sentenced Lynn to three to six years in jail, she told him that he “enabled monsters in clerical garb … to destroy the souls of children.”

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 in 2011. 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.

Lynn’s attorneys maintained that he was not responsible for the St. Jerome altar boy’s welfare under Pennsylvania law when the boy was being abused. Lynn appealed the verdict and, in late 2013, his conviction was thrown out by Pennsylvania Superior Court. The priest remained under house arrest in a Philadelphia rectory while prosecutors appealed the overturned verdict to a higher court.

On Monday, Lynn’s conviction was reinstated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a 4-1 ruling. Defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom said he may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

“He, Lynn, never even knew about this abuse until 2009 and never even knew the child existed, let alone that he was being abused by Avery,” said Bergstrom.

Indeed the highest court in the land may determine that Lynn was not legally responsible for the child’s welfare. But there is no doubt the monsignor was aware of Avery’s pedophilia and that of several other priests who remained in active ministry, according to the “secret file” he himself assembled for Bevilacqua.

Lynn’s transgressions may have been exposed in civil court, but many members of the hierarchy are guilty of the same sins. Holding them accountable should be a top priority of Pope Francis — for the sake of children of all faiths.