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<\/a>As a lifelong Baptist, I\u2019d never been to a confirmation before, but it reminded me of my own baptism. There was no dunking, of course, and with dozens of children in every class it was a much larger and somewhat younger crowd, but the gist of it was still familiar, even with all the additional pomp and circumstance. Between my two daughters and two of their cousins, I attended four confirmation services in as many years. At each of them, the children were quizzed on their catechism by a revered veteran priest out here \u2014 a monsignor<\/em> actually.<\/p>\n You may have heard of him. He\u2019s famous now \u2014 even got profiled in Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>. And he was on the news last night here in Philly.<\/p>\n Monsignor William Lynn, as Sabrina Rubin Ederly wrote for Rolling Stone<\/em>, was:<\/p>\n \u2026 a high-ranking official in Philadelphia\u2019s archdiocese. Lynn, who reported directly to the cardinal, was the trusted custodian of a trove of documents known in the church as the \u201cSecret Archives files.\u201d The files prove what many have long suspected: that officials in the upper echelons of the church not only tolerated the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests but conspired to hide the crimes and silence the victims. Lynn is accused of having been the archdiocese\u2019s sex-abuse fixer, the man who covered up for its priests.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lynn himself is not accused of abusing children. His role was to keep the abusers\u2019 secrets secret. He is accused of covering up and hushing up the scandal on behalf of the archdiocese \u2014 protecting the institution by endangering its children. When a priest was discovered to be abusing children, prosecutors say, it was Lynn who saw to it that they were quietly reassigned elsewhere. He shuffled them off to a new location \u2014 and not to someplace where they\u2019d be away from children, that might have looked suspicious:<\/p>\n Bill Lynn understood that his mission, above all, was to preserve the reputation of the church. The unspoken rule was clear: Never call the police.<\/em> Not long after his promotion, Lynn and a colleague held a meeting with Rev. Michael McCarthy, who had been accused of sexually abusing boys, informing the priest of the fate that Cardinal Bevilacqua had approved: McCarthy would be reassigned to a \u201cdistant\u201d parish \u201cso that the profile can be as low as possible and not attract attention from the complainant.\u201d Lynn dutifully filed his memo of the meeting in the Secret Archives, where it would sit for the next decade.<\/p>\n Over the 12 years that he held the job of secretary of the clergy, Lynn mastered the art of damage control. With his fellow priests, Lynn was unfailingly sympathetic; in a meeting with one distraught pastor who had just admitted to abusing boys, Lynn comforted the clergyman by suggesting that his 11-year-old victim had \u201cseduced\u201d him. With victims, Lynn was smooth and reassuring, promising to take their allegations seriously while doing nothing to punish their abusers. Kathy Jordan, who told Lynn in 2002 that she had been assaulted by a priest as a student at a Catholic high school, recalls how he assured her that the offender would no longer be allowed to work as a pastor. Years later, while reading the priest\u2019s obituary, Jordan says it became clear to her that her abuser had, in fact, remained a priest, serving Mass in Maryland. \u201cI came to realize that by having this friendly, confiding way, Lynn had neutralized me,\u201d she says. \u201cHe handled me brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026 In 2005, the grand jury released its 418-page report, which stands as the most blistering and comprehensive account ever issued on the church\u2019s institutional cover-up of sexual abuse. It named 63 priests who, despite credible accusations of abuse, had been hidden under the direction of Cardinal Bevilacqua and his predecessor, Cardinal Krol. It also gave numerous examples of Lynn covering up crimes at the bidding of his boss.<\/p>\n In the case of Rev. Stanley Gana, accused of \u201ccountless\u201d child molestations, Lynn spent months ruthlessly investigating the personal life of one of the priest\u2019s victims, whom Gana had allegedly begun raping at age 13. Lynn later helpfully explained to the victim that the priest slept with women as well as children. \u201cYou see,\u201d he said, \u201che\u2019s not a pure pedophile\u201d \u2013 which was why Gana remained in the ministry with the cardinal\u2019s blessing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lynn\u2019s devotion to the institution above all else shaped his initial defense. Prosecutors had hoped that serious charges and the threat of serious prison time would get Lynn to roll over, implicating the officials whose orders he was carrying out. But Lynn was a loyal company man, willing to sacrifice himself to protect the archdiocese, its secrets, and its culpability. He was willing to serve as the Wee-Bey<\/a> for the church, taking the blame and the prison time on himself and thereby protecting others. Eberly describes the courtroom scene from last year:<\/p>\n \u201cYou have been charged. You could go to jail,\u201d [Judge Ren\u00e9e Cardwell] Hughes says gravely. \u201cIt may be in your best interest to provide testimony that is adverse to the archdiocese of Philadelphia, the organization that\u2019s paying your lawyers. You understand that\u2019s a conflict of interest?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d Lynn replies.<\/p>\n The judge massages her temples and grimaces, as though she can\u2019t believe what she\u2019s hearing. For 30 minutes straight, she hammers home the point: Do you understand there may come a time that the questioning of archdiocese officials could put you in conflict with your own attorney? Do you understand that you may be approached by the DA offering you a plea deal, in exchange for testimony against the archdiocese? Do you realize that is a conflict of interest for your lawyers?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes, Your Honor,\u201d Lynn continues to insist cheerfully.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But that changed last month when Lynn\u2019s former boss died. Once Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was dead, the archdiocese\u2019s defense team decided that a dead man made an even better scapegoat than a living loyal soldier. Bevilacqua had denied any involvement in or knowledge of Lynn\u2019s work covering up the rape and abuse of dozens of children. But now Lynn\u2019s attorneys are willing to implicate the late cardinal and to paint him as the lone bad apple on whom all the blame should rest.<\/p>\n The Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s<\/em> John P. Martin reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing.<\/p>\n The order, outlined in a handwritten note locked away for years at the archdiocese\u2019s Center City offices, was disclosed Friday by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church administrator facing trial next month.<\/p>\n \u2026 \u201cMsgr. Lynn was completely unaware of this act of obstruction,\u201d attorneys Jeffrey Lindy and Thomas Bergstrom wrote.<\/p>\n Their motion asks Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to dismiss the conspiracy and endangerment charges against Lynn, or to bar prosecutors from introducing Bevilacqua\u2019s videotaped testimony at trial.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That would be the testimony in which the cardinal perjured himself, swearing that he knew nothing of the list of abusive priests that he had personally ordered his underlings to shred. Martin writes that \u201cThe revelation is likely to further cloud Bevilacqua\u2019s complicated legacy in the handling of clergy sex abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n No. It clarifies Bevilacqua\u2019s legacy. He was a liar. He lied to preserve church assets and he lied because the preservation of those assets \u2014 money, money, money \u2014 was a far greater priority for him than the protection of children or justice and healing for victims. And for this lying and this single-minded devotion to money, Bevilacqua was \u201celevated\u201d to the position of cardinal.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear here: shredding those documents could never keep the church\u2019s crimes hidden. The crimes Bevilacqua and Lynn worked so hard to conceal had been witnessed by too many people \u2014 by the victims themselves. The document-shredding and perjury were simply an attempt to buy time until the statute of limitations was exhausted, shielding the accused priests from criminal prosecution and thus making civil litigation more difficult and, for the archdiocese, less costly. It wasn\u2019t just the statute of limitations they were waiting for either. The victims of such horrific childhood abuse are often prone to self-destructive behavior or even to self-destruction. The longer the cardinal and his lackey could delay their day of reckoning, the fewer victims might be left to testify against them. And the more time the church would have to \u201cinvestigate the personal lives\u201d and dig up dirt on those survivors brave enough to speak up.<\/p>\n