PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A prosecutor on Monday described in graphic detail how a former Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest allegedly molested seven altar boys and was shuffled from parish to parish for two decades before being removed from ministry.
When the former Rev. Edward Avery was rebuffed by one of the boys he allegedly assaulted in the late 1990s, he didn’t pursue the boy “because the archdiocese was supplying him with an endless amount of victims,” assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti said. Avery was finally defrocked in 2006.
The account marked the opening salvo in a critical pretrial hearing for Avery, two current priests accused of child-sex abuse and Msgr. William Lynn, the former ranking church official charged with covering up or enabling their attacks. The four men face a trial in March. All have pleaded not guilty.
Monday’s daylong hearing focuses on an issue both sides say could shape the case like no other: Prosecutors want Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to let them introduce evidence of dozens of attacks over the decades by other archdiocesan priests or former priests who haven’t been charged in the case. They planned to spend hours recounting for the judge details of abusive priests across the region and how Lynn and other church officials handled the allegations against them.
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