“Unprecedented” and possibly with “national implications” is the indictment in Philadelphia of an archdiocesan official who did not remove sexually abusive priests from work with minors, says CNN senior Vatican analyst and veteran National Catholic Reporter writer John Allen.
Monsignor William Lynn, who served as the secretary for clergy [vicar for priests] . . . under then-Philadelphia Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with . . . alleged assaults, Williams said.
From 1992 until 2004, Lynn was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children, the district attorney’s office said.
The grand jury found that Lynn, 60, endangered children, including the alleged victims of those charged last week, by knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to kids.
Allen explains:
“This is apparently the first time that a Catholic leader has been charged criminally for the cover-up as opposed to the abuse itself,” he said. “It sends a shot across the bow for bishops and other diocesan officials in other parts of the country, who have to wonder now if they’ve got criminal exposure, too.”
It’s a “quis custodiet custodes?” moment, the answer being apparently the law’s long arm.
Blithe Spirit 
It’s about time! And what about conspiracy to obstruct justice? That’s one of my favorite underutilized statutes of the criminal law.
Oh, I would have been a terror as a prosecutor, I tell you, Jim, another Patrick Fitzgerald.
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