Philadelphia Priest Trial Painful, Poignant For Catholics

Philadelphia Priest Trial Painful, Poignant For Catholics
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 04/21/12

PHILADELPHIA — Graphic testimony in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial this month has ripped open secret church files and reopened old wounds among Catholics as scarred men and women tell jurors that priests groped, molested or raped them as teens.

The testimony has proven both painful and poignant, especially that of a 48-year-old man who said he had been in love with his parish priest during a five-year sexual relationship that began in ninth grade – and jealous when the priest allegedly bedded down at his farmhouse with other teens.

The stories have been told before, in two Philadelphia grand jury reports and in lawsuits filed around the country.

But Monsignor William Lynn’s decision to go to trial on child-endangerment charges stemming from his 12 years as secretary for clergy has brought the grand jury reports to life – and seemingly put the archdiocese on trial. The judge is allowing testimony about more than 20 accused but uncharged priests, because Lynn knew of complaints lodged against them or took part in internal church investigations.

The accused priests were left in ministry, often transferred to unsuspecting parishes.

Nearly a dozen alleged victims have testified, while internal church memos and Lynn’s 2002 grand jury testimony have been read aloud. And jurors will soon hear from a former altar boy who says he was raped by two priests and his fifth-grade teacher….

Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with helping the church cover up complaints of child sexual abuse. He faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted….

Lynn, 61, is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, 48, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen in 1996. Each has pleaded not guilty. Defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges days before trial, and is serving a 2-1/2 to 5-year prison term.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/21/pa-priest-trial-painful-p_n_1443041.html

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Abuse Case, radio interview on child molesters

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Sex Abuse Case
by Jeff Brady
December 17, 2011

Accused of trying to cover up Penn State’s child sex abuse scandal, two former administrators will face a trial on perjury charges. A judge made that decision at a preliminary hearing on Friday, as NPR’s Jeff Brady reports. Warning: This segment contains language that may not be suitable for all audiences. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143886780/penn-state-officials-face-trial-in-sex-abuse-case

Penn State officials to stand trial in abuse case
By Mark Shade HARRISBURG, Pa  Fri Dec 16, 2011

(Reuters) – A judge ruled on Friday that two former senior Penn State officials must stand trial on charges of lying to a grand jury about what they knew of sexual abuse allegations against former coach Jerry Sandusky.

District Judge William Wenner decided there was enough evidence against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz that they should be brought to trial. The ruling capped a court hearing where a key witness, Mike McQueary, testified in public for the first time that he saw Sandusky in a sex act with a 10-year-old boy in 2002.

The explosive allegations against Sandusky have shocked the university and the college-sports world, and focused national attention on the serious problem of child sex abuse. The story told by McQueary, a graduate assistant in the university’s football program at the time, is key to the case against the two Penn State officials and Sandusky.

This is because McQueary testified that he personally witnessed the abuse and then told his boss, former head coach Joe Paterno, who in turn told Curley. Even though McQueary’s account was passed up the line of authority at Penn State, no one told police and Sandusky’s alleged behavior continued for years.

Curley and Schultz deny that they lied to the grand jury and say that Paterno and McQueary only told them in general terms about the incident and not in graphic detail. Sandusky has been charged with 52 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 victims over 15 years. The identity of two of the victims, including the boy in the shower, remains unknown, prosecutors said. Sandusky has said he is innocent….

“I believe he was sexually molesting the boy,” McQueary testified at the hearing in the Dauphin County Courthouse on Friday. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/17/us-crime-coach-pennstate-idUSTRE7BF01R20111217

Radio talk show host Keith Hansen interviews researcher and former therapist, Lynn Crook, M.Ed., on current issues related to child molesters.   Where do we find them?  How do they operate?  When should we decide what to do if our child is molested? http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/crook.mp3

Philadelphia Grand Jury Report on Clergy Sexual Abuse

“By the Archdiocese’s own account, at least 37 priests remain in ministry despite reports that they have engaged in improper behavior with minors.”

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS – FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA – CRIMINAL TRIAL DIVISION – IN RE: : MISC. NO. 0009901-2008 COUNTY INVESTIGATING : GRAND JURY XXIII : C-14
REPORT OF THE GRAND JURY – R. SETH WILLIAMS District Attorney of Philadelphia
REPORT TO THE HONORABLE RENÉE CALDWELL HUGHES, SUPERVISING JUDGE:

We, the Twenty-Third County Investigating Jury, were impaneled pursuant to the Investigating Grand Jury Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 4541, et seq., and were charged to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by Archdiocesan clergy and employees. Having obtained knowledge of such matters from physical evidence presented and witnesses sworn by the Court and testifying before us, upon our respective oaths, not fewer than twelve of us concurring, we hereby submit this report to the Court.

Overview
In September 2003, a grand jury of local citizens released a report detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

That abuse was known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the Cardinal himself. The previous grand jury was frustrated that it could not charge either the abusers or their protectors in the church, because the successful cover-up of the abuse resulted in the expiration of the statute of limitations. Now, measures taken in response to the previous report have led to new information about more recent abuse, which this grand jury was empaneled to investigate. The fact that we received that information, and from the church itself, is some sign of progress; and this time there will be charges. The present grand jury, however, is frustrated to report that much has not changed.

The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again. The procedures implemented by the Archdiocese to help victims are in fact designed to help the abusers, and the Archdiocese itself.

Worst of all, apparent abusers – dozens of them, we believe – remain on duty in the Archdiocese, today, with open access to new young prey….

We implore Cardinal Rigali and his staff to review all of the old allegations against currently active priests, and to remove from ministry all of the priests with credible allegations against them. By the Archdiocese’s own account, at least 37 priests remain in ministry despite reports that they have engaged in improper behavior with minors. That should not be acceptable to anyone.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2011_01_21_Philadelphia_Grand_Jury_Final_Report_Clergy_Abuse_2.pdf

 

Philadelphia Priests Accused by Grand Jury of Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up

Philadelphia Priests Accused by Grand Jury of Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up By JON HURDLE February 10, 2011 PHILADELPHIA

A grand jury on Thursday accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after a grand jury report documented abuse by more than 50 priests. The new report said a senior church official charged with investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests had in fact allowed some of those accused to remain in posts that gave them continued access to children. It charged him with endangering the welfare of minors and accused three priests and a teacher of raping two boys between 1996 and 1999.
“By no means do we believe that these were the only two parishioners who were abused during this period,” the report said.

At least 37 priests who are subject to “substantial evidence of abuse” are still in roles that bring them into contact with children, the new report said, and 10 of those have been in place since before 2005, when the last grand jury made its allegations….

The report also charged Msgr. William Lynn, secretary of clergy in the archdiocese under former Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, with endangering the welfare of children by allowing “dangerous” priests to remain in place. Monsignor Lynn was responsible for investigating abuse allegations from 1992 to 2004.

“The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again,” the grand jury said….
In a statement issued late on Thursday, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, rejected the report’s assertion that there were active priests who had been credibly accused of abuse….

The report accused the archdiocese of lacking urgency in its efforts to eradicate sexual abuse by its priests….
“These are simply not the actions of an institution that is serious about ending sexual abuse of children,” the report said.

The 124-page report, which contains graphic descriptions of abuse of the 9- and 10-year-old boys, said the grand jury decided “reluctantly” not to press charges against Cardinal Bevilacqua, who stepped down in 2003 after 15 years as archbishop, even though he worked closely with Monsignor Lynn, because it did not have enough evidence.
In 2005, a grand jury report accused the church of an “immoral cover-up” that had exposed hundreds of children to sexual assault. That report recommended no criminal charges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11priest.html