VoluntaryAmerican
12-26-2013, 10:36 PM
Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse said Thursday that the dismissal of Msgr. William Lynn's conviction on child-endangerment charges was nothing short of a travesty of justice.
"What a disgrace," Marita Green, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Voice of the Faithful, a group of activist Catholics, said in a statement. "I don't care whose 'orders' Lynn followed, whether [Cardinals] Bevilaqua's, Krol's, or even O'Hara's. It is appalling that the laws in the state of Pennsylvania have been so ineffective that none of these enablers, facilitators, and cover-upers have gone to jail."
But supporters of the monsignor said they were elated at the news.
"I think that this case will give other prosecutors around the country pause to reflect on who is really accountable for the damage that may have been done to victims of sexual abuse," said Joe Maher, founder of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a Detroit organization that provides assistance to accused priests.
Lynn, 62, was the first Catholic Church administrator in the country to be charged with covering up child sex abuse.
Nearly 18 months after he went to prison, his lawyers persuaded a Superior Court panel that prosecutors and the Philadelphia trial judge misapplied the state's child-endangerment laws. They contended that the laws in place when he was secretary for clergy in the 1990s and early 2000s applied only to those who directly supervised children, and the higher court agreed.
Marci Hamilton, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims suing Lynn and the Philadelphia archdiocese, called the decision a "very technical reading of the law."
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131227_Lynn_ruling_elates_supporters__deflates_v ictim_advocates.html#0y7HXb4E83wuFbMK.99
backstory:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/Monsignor_William_Lynn_conviction_overturned_by_Pa _court_DA_most_likely_to_appeal.html
"What a disgrace," Marita Green, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Voice of the Faithful, a group of activist Catholics, said in a statement. "I don't care whose 'orders' Lynn followed, whether [Cardinals] Bevilaqua's, Krol's, or even O'Hara's. It is appalling that the laws in the state of Pennsylvania have been so ineffective that none of these enablers, facilitators, and cover-upers have gone to jail."
But supporters of the monsignor said they were elated at the news.
"I think that this case will give other prosecutors around the country pause to reflect on who is really accountable for the damage that may have been done to victims of sexual abuse," said Joe Maher, founder of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a Detroit organization that provides assistance to accused priests.
Lynn, 62, was the first Catholic Church administrator in the country to be charged with covering up child sex abuse.
Nearly 18 months after he went to prison, his lawyers persuaded a Superior Court panel that prosecutors and the Philadelphia trial judge misapplied the state's child-endangerment laws. They contended that the laws in place when he was secretary for clergy in the 1990s and early 2000s applied only to those who directly supervised children, and the higher court agreed.
Marci Hamilton, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims suing Lynn and the Philadelphia archdiocese, called the decision a "very technical reading of the law."
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131227_Lynn_ruling_elates_supporters__deflates_v ictim_advocates.html#0y7HXb4E83wuFbMK.99
backstory:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/Monsignor_William_Lynn_conviction_overturned_by_Pa _court_DA_most_likely_to_appeal.html