Church Official in Philadelphia Gets Prison in Abuse Case

By JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: July 24, 2012

Philadelphia— Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison.

It goes on.

I have to ask myself if this is the end or the beginning.  Other diocese administrators throughout the country should be shaking in their collars.  Lynn will have to serve at least three years.  Three years in prison for being a, “yes”, man to the incredibly arrogant and evil acting past cardinal of the archdiocese.

Contrast this to the way Pennsylvania State University handled the Sandusky scandal once it came to light.  People in power were fired right away.  An investigation uncovered that Joe Paterno and the whole of the university muckety-mucks knew about the abuse and hid it.  Why?  Two reasons; money and power.

Just like in the Catholic Church’s scandal money and power corrupted many.  In both cases the fear of ruining any prospect of upward-mobility, or even keeping the job you have, played into the decisions of so many to do absolutely nothing.  Greed played a part too.  I already knew this but it does show that money and what turns out to be a false reputation of an entity, (like the Church, universities, politics, Hollywood), seem to matter more than the protection of victims, in the case of the Church the very souls of victims.

I only wish that there was an entity like the NCAA to levy sanctions against the Church.  If each diocese in the U.S.A. was hit with a 60 million dollar fine for the cover-up of the crimes of sexual abuse then maybe the leadership would understand the heinusness of what they did, would be humbled, and offer sincere mea culpa’s.  Their apologies ring hallow to me because of there continued search to find someone or something else to blame. 

The claim that the real power stops at the bishop is false.  If the bishop is gutless and reassigned molesters to different parishes then it is up to the men who are in the chancery to pick up the phone and call the police.  Msgr. Bill Lynn did not do that and now is paying the price. 

He belongs in prison.  Bill Lynn, Joe Paterno and all the other men orchestrating or being complicit in abuse cover-ups are NOT nice guys.  “Nice guys”, would have seen to it that kids were safe.