Catholic Church turns back on embattled monsignor

By JONATHAN WOLFMAN

The other week I wrote here of several, first-of-their-kind criminal prosecutions of churchmen, leaders who perpetuated child abuse.

I raised up the behavior of Kansas City’s Bishop Finn who allowed a known sexually deviant priest to molest his way through that diocese. Bishop Finn reassigned a pedophile priest to a facility in which the priest would have regular contact with kids. . I spoke, too, of Philadelphia’s Monsignor William Lynn who two weeks back became the first priest-administrator in the United States church hierarchy to serve prison time, in his case for shredding archival evidence thereby actively shielding well over 30 pedophile priests.

Word has it that, now that the monsignor’s case has been lost, the Philadelphia Archdiocese has dramatically cut back the support it had provided for Lynn’s defense. Even as  Lynn is appealing his six-year term, his legal team, four lawyers prior to his conviction, has been halved and the remaining two will now have to continue to represent the convicted monsignor – for howver long they remain in the picture – largely pro bono.

Any wagers on how long those lawyers and the church will support Lynn?

One could argue, of course, that appeals require less vigorous representation than an initial defense. One may also imagine that church accountants know they have and will have for the forseeable future, just too many other perpetrators to defend. Or, one could say that Lynn is now rightly in the position he himself helped keep hundreds of nameless children for years – alone and terrified.

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Posted by Gary on Aug 20 2012. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.