PENNSYLVANIA
Sports Illustrated
John Wertheim
Last Friday, a 12-member Pennsylvania jury issued a groundbreaking decision that will change the way we prosecute and perceive sex crimes against children. The guilty verdict will have far-reaching consequences for how authority figures and institutions can be held criminally liable when committing and covering up sexual abuse.
Yet when Monsignor William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide with the archdiocese of Philadelphia, was found guilty of endangering children — and now faces jail time for concealing evidence about predatory priests, transferring them to other parishes instead of confronting allegations about their abuse — a nation hardly stopped its business. Twitter wasn’t atwitter, networks didn’t break from regularly scheduled programming to announce the verdict, and reporters on the ground didn’t file reports over the whir of circling news helicopters.
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