PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times
By PATTI MENGERS
pmengers@delcotimes.com, @pattimengers
Boston may be where the national clerical sex abuse scandal was first exposed when a priest was convicted of child molestation in 2002, but Philadelphia will be remembered as the place where a church official was first held criminally liable for not stopping the abuse.
Friday’s child endangerment conviction of the Rev. Msgr. William Lynn by a Philadelphia jury for allowing a known pedophile priest to have continued access to youngsters while he was secretary for clergy is precedent-setting, said Anne Bowen Poulin, a law professor at the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Radnor.
“What it shows is that the church documented so much of this history of abuse within the church. This signals to prosecutors that this evidence may be available,” said Poulin, who has taught at the Roman Catholic university since 1981.
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