Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua broke civil and church laws when he ordered aides in 1994 to shred a list identifying dozens of Philadelphia-area priests suspected of molesting children, an expert on canon law and clergy sex abuse testified Thursday.
"That was like obstructing justice cubed," the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle told a Common Pleas Court jury. "He's got a list of men who may have abused children - and he's going to shred it?"
The assertion thrust the late cardinal squarely into the spotlight for the first time in the landmark child-sex-abuse and endangerment trial against his former secretary for clergy, Msgr. William J. Lynn.
And though an attorney for Lynn strove to paint Bevilacqua as a bossy micromanager who dictated how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia handled abuse cases, Doyle wouldn't give Lynn a pass.
He said the overriding purpose of the Catholic Church - including its clerics - was to be pastoral, compassionate, and emulate Christ. "That's what the church is about, and why priests exist," he said.
As a priest and canon lawyer, Doyle was the author of a groundbreaking 1985 study into sexual abuse by priests. He has since spent decades as a high-profile advocate for abuse victims.
His daylong testimony Thursday marked a change in tempo at the trial. For three weeks, jurors had endured a drumbeat of testimony about local priests who allegedly fondled, raped, or tried to molest children.
Prosecutors turned to Doyle to give them a broader perspective about the longtime practices and processes within the Catholic Church - and how Bevilacqua, Lynn, and others may have applied or ignored them.
They contend that Lynn, as the archdiocesan official who investigated priests' misconduct and recommended their assignments, endangered children by not removing two priests he knew or suspected would abuse children.
A second defendant, the Rev. James J. Brennan, is accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy in 1996.
The 1994 list of suspected abusers has emerged as a key piece of evidence for both sides in the case.
Lynn's attorneys say he compiled the list and gave it to his superiors after combing hundreds of priests' secret personnel files in an attempt to gauge the breadth of the abuse problem.
They say he knew nothing about the shredding or a memo found 12 years later in a safe at archdiocesan offices that outlined Bevilacqua's order to destroy the list.
(Source: Philly.com)
See Also:
No comments:
Post a Comment