PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
[video]
By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer
A landmark trial over child sex abuse by Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests opened Monday with a prosecutor and defense lawyer clashing over a central question:
Was Msgr. William J. Lynn trying to protect children or the church?
As the official responsible for investigating allegations of clergy sex-abuse around Philadelphia, he couldn’t do both, Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Coelho told jurors. So Lynn, she said, chose to spare church leaders and his fellow priests from scandal at the expense of victims and the public.
“You can’t protect the church without keeping the allegations in the dark,” Coelho said in her opening statement. “He kept the parishioners in the dark, and he kept the faithful in the dark.”
Lynn’s lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, provided a starkly different portrait. He said that as secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, Lynn devoted himself to comprehending the scope of clergy sex-abuse around the archdiocese and trying to isolate problem priests.
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