PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Wall Street Journal
By STEVE EDER, JENNIFER LEVITZ and PETER LOFTUS
PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia jury delivered a sharp rebuke of the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse by its priests, convicting for the first time a senior church official of not taking steps that could have prevented further attacks.
Msgr. William Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, was found guilty on Friday of one count of child endangerment for allowing a priest to take a new assignment involving contact with children even after learning of allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate contact with at least one minor. The jury deadlocked in the case of another priest who was overseen by Msgr. Lynn and also on trial, the Rev. James Brennan.
The landmark ruling came after jurors heard nearly 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that opened a window into how one of the nation’s largest Catholic dioceses grappled with the sort of allegations that have shaken the church for more than a decade.
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