PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Catholic League
The Philadelphia Archdiocese was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” today by prosecutors in a case involving clergy sexual abuse. At the pretrial hearing, Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti made accusations against a defrocked priest, Edward Avery, and the archdiocese. Cipolletti said “the archdiocese was supplying him [Avery] with an endless amount of victims.” Msgr. William Lynn will also face trial in March. He is charged with covering up incidents of sexual abuse for the archdiocese.
[The article by John P. Martin of the Philadelphia Inquirer is the source of the remarks attributed to the parties in this dispute.]
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
Attorney Thomas Bergstrom, who is representing Msgr. William Lynn, calls Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti’s remarks “nutty.” He does so by citing the fact that all but one of the seven allegations made against Edward Avery were made after Lynn had left his post in the archdiocese where he was responsible for dealing with these cases. Bergstrom notes that the prosecutors are conceding this issue—they know that Lynn wasn’t aware of these cases—yet they continue to hammer away.
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