PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By David O’Reilly, Jennifer Lin, Melissa Dribben, and Anthony R. Wood
Inquirer Staff Writers
As news circulated Friday afternoon that a jury had found Msgr. William J. Lynn guilty of child endangerment, many around the region praised the decision as fair, while some found it too gentle and a few maintained that the priest should have been set free.
“He only got one count?” asked Erin McGonigal, 31, who gasped when told of the verdict.
“What about all the kids, all the people who suffered?” she asked, standing outside Immaculate Mary nursing home in Northeast Philadelphia. She expressed doubt that Lynn would get the maximum prison sentence of seven years.
Her mother, Marybeth McGonigal, 57, said Lynn had officiated at her wedding in 1980 at St. Bernard’s parish in Frankford. Although she thought he was likable and “hip” at the time, she said she now found it “scary” that he married her and her husband.
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