Cardinal Rigali Under Boss Monsignor Lynn Found Guilty in Philly

Monsignor William Lynn and Cardinal Justin "Big Frank" Rigali

Monsignor Lynn, under boss of the Cardinals Rigali and Bevilacqua regimes, has been found guilty of the charge of Child Endangerment in the Philadelphia Archdiocese Child Abuse Trial.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18560069

Prosecutors alleged that Lynn, who supervised hundreds of priests, helped cover-up child sex abuse, often by transferring priests to new parishes.

He is now the highest-ranking US Roman Catholic official convicted in connection in a wider scandal.

Child sex abuse cases across Roman Catholic churches in the US have cost billions in settlements, driving some US dioceses into bankruptcy.

The jury deliberated for 13 days but was unable to deliver a verdict against a co-defendant, Rev James Brennan, accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy....

As secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, Lynn was in charge of supervising about 800 priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese, including investigating sex abuse claims.

Lynn told parishes with suspected predators that their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sent the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said.

Defence lawyers argued that Lynn alone tried to document the complaints, to get priests into treatment and to alert higher Church officials to the growing crisis.

Central to but physically absent from the case was Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who ran the archdiocese.

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