PHILADELPHIA (PA)
OpEd News
By
Joey Piscitelli
The very first conviction of a Roman Catholic Official for child endangerment in the USA has been decided in a Pennsylvania court jury trial on Friday June 22, 2012.
Monsignor William Lynn, 61 yrs. old, has been convicted by a 7 man, 5 woman jury, who decided he was guilty of transferring sex abusers, and covering up a list of at least 37 accused priests – and not alerting parents of their potential threat to children.
Evidence showed Monsignor Lynn willfully reassigned pedophile clergy to unsuspecting schools and parishes, without regard for safety; and with the intention of protecting the catholic church instead.
This unprecedented conviction will have far reaching impact on other cases in the US in the future, as no other catholic official in a high position of power has ever been tried and convicted in any court.
One of the most disturbing revelations brought up in the trial showed that Lynn had reportedly told some of the pedophile priests in the diocese that it was the fault of the child victims for enticing the priests into a sexual encounter. Another outrageous allegation was that Cardinal Bevilaqua had ordered the monsignor to destroy the list of sex abusers in the Diocese of Philadelphia, and to conceal the order.
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