Another debt ceiling debacle could sink the economy
Last year's Congressional debt standoff hurt consumer confidence more than the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Betsey Johnson and Justin Wolfers write. This time could be worse. Read more at Counterparties
Jury selection to begin in Philadelphia church abuse scandal
PHILADELPHIA |
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A criminal trial in the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese pedophilia scandal gets underway on Tuesday, a case likely to be watched closely as one defendant is the first high-ranking U.S. cleric to go to trial in a child sex abuse case.
Selection of a jury to hear child endangerment charges against Monsignor William Lynn and more severe sex abuse charges against two others is set to begin in Common Pleas Court.
While Lynn is not charged with sex abuse, the others on trial -- one priest and one defrocked priest -- are accused of sexually abusing children between 1996 and 1999. Another priest and a former archdiocese school teacher facing sex abuse charges will be tried separately.
The case not only puts a harsh spotlight on the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the nation's sixth largest with 1.5 million adherents, but is worthy of attention from the Vatican, given Lynn's rank as the highest U.S. church official to go to trial, experts say.
"This is cause for major anxiety in the church," said Terry McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group. "Certainly this will be watched at the Vatican. This is very worrisome to them."
Typically in the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic church for decades, cases have been settled out of court. Rarely --- just 30 to 40 priests out of more than 1,000 accused -- do such cases go to trial.
The church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims, bankrupting a handful of dioceses.
Lynn, rather than call law enforcement or remove priests accused of misconduct from their posts, "routinely and knowingly placed abusive priests in positions where they would have continued access to children," said a grand jury report released in January 2011.
The grand jury said Lynn, 61, did so under direction of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died on January 31 at age 88. Lynn was secretary of the clergy under Bevilacqua.
Bevilacqua, the retired archbishop of Philadelphia, was to have been a witness in the trial, after a judge ruled just a day before he died that he was competent to testify. Church officials said Bevilacqua suffered from dementia and cancer.
Given Lynn's rank, a plea bargain is likely to be under consideration, said attorney Marci Hamilton who is involved in six civil lawsuits against the archdiocese on behalf of men who say they were sexually abused as children by churchmen.
"I would be shocked if a plea was not at the top of Monsignor Lynn's list," she said. "It is very rare for any higher-ups in the Catholic Church to even testify at trial, let alone be a defendant at trial."
Typically in a plea bargain, the accused may plead guilty to certain charges so that other charges are dropped or in exchange for a reduced sentence.
If history is a guide, Hamilton noted, such a plea bargain could come at the last minute.
"They might even go through jury selection, but they will not let it get to the point where you have to testify," she said.
She too said the case would attract remarkable attention.
"I think it is going to be watched closely by the church, but I think it will be equally closely watched by prosecutors around the country," she said.
Opening statements are set to begin on March 26.
(Editing By Ellen Wulfhorst)
- Tweet this
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
Judgment day is approaching for Archdiocese’s facilitators & enablers
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/138977774.html
BY SISTER MAUREEN PAUL TURLISH
FOR the first time in this country, a high-ranking clergyman – Msgr. William Lynn, the former vicar of clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia – will be tried on criminal charges for putting children in danger because of his “alleged” mishandling of priests known or credibly accused of the sexual exploitation of children.
No bishop or high-ranking church official in the United States has ever been held criminally responsible for facilitating or enabling the sexual exploitation of a child, but that is about to change with the March opening of Lynn’s criminal trial.
It remains to be seen, however, what effect Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s death will have on the admissibility of information contained in testimony videotaped in preparation for the trial.
Testimony from Bevilacqua’s 10 grand jury appearances relating to the sexual abuse of children and the subsequent cover-up continue to be under seal.
What church officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have done and what they have failed to do over decades has enabled and facilitated the sexual exploitation of untold numbers of children, and that is only the beginning of the harm inflicted on the innocent.
Remember, this is the archdiocese that has vehemently denied that it even had a problem with priests sexually exploiting children within its ranks when the magnitude of the sexual abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston was exposed by the Boston Globe.
Nor has the Archdiocese of Philadelphia been able to get out in front of its sexual-abuse cover-up scandal: not between 2002 and 2005, when it denied that it had any problems at all; not in 2005, when the first Philadelphia grand jury report came out and it took 76 pages for Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young, L.L.P., to help the Archdiocese put its foot in its mouth while confirming what many had suspected for years; and not in 2011, when the second grand jury report documented how little had been done in response to the recommendations made in the 2005 report.
On Jan. 26, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina told the Archdiocese “to be ready March 26, the first day of Lynn’s conspiracy and child-endangerment trial, to turn over what could be hundreds or thousands of private records detailing Lynn’s communications with church lawyers about sex-abuse claims between 1992 and 2004, when he was secretary for clergy.”
The possible exposure of the depth and breadth of the hierarchy’s cover-up of the sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese may very well eclipse that of the Boston Archdiocese in 2002.
Should Sarmina, on making her decision, have immediately sent officers of the court armed with search warrants and security personnel to the offices of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to secure all related records?
Documents have been destroyed while some have gone missing in other dioceses in this country. The possibility that it could happen here cannot be ruled out.
Should those who have failed so miserably and learned so little since 2002 now be trusted to do the right thing and follow Sarmina’s orders?
Remember, altruism was never the basis for the decisions made by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002.
Shielding those who commit the heinous crime of sexually exploiting children, who enable others to do so and then who are complicit in covering up such “prior bad acts” is a matter for the criminal-justice system because it is society’s responsibility to protect those who could not protect themselves.
________________________________________
Maureen Paul Turlish is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, an educator and an advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse and legislative reform. She has taught in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and writes from New Castle, Delaware.
Hamilton and McKiernan are HOPING for a plea bargain because the accusers have NO credibility whatsoever! (But of course writer Dave Warner did not want to tell you that.)
Follow Reuters