PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
Christine M. Flowers
As I write, a jury of 12 good Philadelphians is deliberating over the fate of Monsignor William Lynn, who stands accused of protecting sexual predators. He is the proxy for a hierarchy that far too late came to understand that criminals are criminals even if they are sick of mind and spirit, and wear Roman collars.
Today, I don’t know what type of verdict those good people will render. But it doesn’t matter. The fact that there is a trial at all, one where the defendant is protected by the same system that separates the guilty from the innocent regardless of creed, color or cash flow, is a triumph. Caesar is given his due, because no one — priest or penitent —is above the law.
The lawyer in me is proud of that fact; proud, too, that the secular mobs who scream for the dismantling of statutes of limitations have not been successful. While priests should be held to the same standard as laymen, they should not be targeted for special punishment, which is exactly what those who advocate eliminating limiting statutes seek. You cannot ignore the fact that this move to make it easier to sue alleged sexual predators gained strength just at the moment that the sex-abuse scandal exploded in Boston almost a decade ago. So many of the so-called civil libertarians who would use their last breath to defend the rights of the accused see nothing wrong in neutralizing those rights when it comes to clergy. Anyone who denies the anti-Catholic or, at least, anti-clerical nature of these ‘reforms’ is either naïve or dishonest.
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