PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquiry
By David O’Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
The 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that accused Msgr. William J. Lynn of child endangerment did much more than set in motion the landmark felony trial that ended Friday with his conviction.
The 124-page report – which charged the archdiocese with keeping in active ministry 37 priests accused of inappropriate behavior with children – triggered a series of actions by the local church to finally deal forcefully with the simmering sexual-abuse scandal.
Within days of the report’s release, then-archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali placed 21 of the accused priests on administrative leave (the other 16 were already removed from ministry or had no substantial charges against them), and hired former sex-crimes prosecutor Gina M. Smith to assemble a team of law-enforcement and child-abuse experts to investigate the charges.
Last month, Rigali’s successor, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, announced that five of the accused priests would be permanently removed from ministry as a result of that investigation and that three had been exonerated.
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