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AP File
Edward Avery was to have gone on trial Monday.
A defrocked Philadelphia priest pleaded guilty to sexually molesting an altar boy Thursday, just days before a landmark priest abuse trial was set to start.
Edward Avery, 69, was sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in jail for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and conspiracy to endanger children. He was ordered to surrender in 10 days, according to authorities.
Avery had been scheduled to go on trial Monday.
According to court documents obtained by Philadelphia's NBC10, Avery admitted that in 1999, he "engaged in oral sexual intercourse" with a 10-year-old boy while Avery was a priest at St. Jerome's Parish in northeast Philadelphia. Avery was 57 at the time.
Read this story on Philadelphia's NBC10
Two other church officials will still go on trial. The Rev. James Brennan is also charged with rape. Msgr. William Lynn is accused of endangering children by transferring the two accused priests to new parishes during the 1990s. The 61-year-old Lynn has pleaded not guilty and blames the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua for hiding the problem.
Avery was at the parish despite a credible 1992 complaint that led him to undergo psychological testing at an archdiocesan-run psychiatric hospital, according to a grand jury report. He was pulled from his parish, put on a so-called "health leave" and then reassigned in 1993, the report said.
Avery's accuser said he was passed around by Avery, another priest and his Catholic school teacher in 1998-99.
After Mass, Avery "took the fifth-grader into the sacristy, turned on the music, and ordered him to perform a 'striptease' for him. ... When they were both naked, the priest had the boy sit on his lap and kissed his neck and back, while saying to him that God loved him," the grand jury report alleged. Oral sex and digital penetration followed, the report said.
In the court document for Avery's guilty plea, the prosecutor told the judge:
Avery was aided in his efforts to remain in ministry with unsupervised access to parish children and altar servers by Lynn and others in the Archdiocese.
Defendant Lynn and other Archdiocese officials acted in concert with Avery with a common purpose to conceal Avery's known acts of sexual abuse of a minor ... so that Avery could remain in ministry without the knowledge of parishioners whose children would be exposed to a man that Defendant Lynn and others in the Archdiocese knew presented a danger to children.
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Best way to handle these monsters is after a fair trial, if gound guilty, excute them so they can never become a repeat offender. Yes, it's cruel, but what they did, the possibility of ruined lives behind them, they deserve it.
Catholic Church is incapable of policing themselves.
HONESTY has been missing for a long long long time.
Any questions?
Those pesky priests don't even have to go to Thailand for their boys, the kid's parents provide them and even drive them to church.
And it's all tax-free.
If there's a god, why does he allow this? Right, the priests are exercising their "free will". I guess the boys are also exercising their free will to be raped, huh?
Explain yourselves, christians! How does "free will" work for these boys?
I wanted to be a priest, but I didn't have enough experience molesting children.
And this is the Church that thinks it can tell women that they aren't allowed to use contraception or abortion. When will the Catholic Church stop pointing the finger of self-righteousness at others and look in the mirror? The Pope, the Bishops, the Cardinals are just liars, cover-upers, and prigs about women. Scum.
Wow. Here I thought nothing fazed me; I read this article with the most twisted moue of disgust on my face.
After all this, he's only getting 2.5-5 years? How is that even remotely considered justice?
If this man were not a claric, he would have been locked up from day one. He should be treated like anyone else off the street and be locked up now. The 10 days to turn himself is ridiculous! The sentence is also far too short for his crimes. Anyone who was involved in his movement from one parish to another should be prosecuted as well.
The blame lies with the Vatican and every POPE including the late John Paul that is going to be made a saint.
All Popes have known of the problem, but just passed it along to the next one.
For this horrible miss use of trust, if there is a heaven, I don't believe for one minute that any Pope is among the luck that made it.
The Vatican has covered up this since the inception of the church some what 2000 years ago. They pushed it so far under that it came out the other end of the vortex.
Not only the Catholic Church, all religions are and have been the best hiding place for pedophiles. Can you think of a better place to hide in plain sight than a minister of a God?
There's not enough yuck in the world to describe this priest and the others that "passed around" this poor little boy. I should also say that 2 1/2 years of time is nowhere near enough. He should never ever see the light of day (or children) again.
I am glad to have seen justice done here, both in his guilty plea as well as in his defrocking. It shows that this can be done through our courts as well as the Church when it does the right thing. As a victim of abuse myself, I am pleased.
I am following the Philadelphia cases, and actually do have my doubts as to the guilt of the men charged, as well as their ability to get a fair trial since the judge has shown herself to be openly Anti-Catholic. We shall see how this all plays out.
Many forget that this is not "The Catholic Church" at fault, but rather certain men who have not followed the teaching of the Catholic Church. If they had kept their vows and not harmed the innocent, then all would be right. But we do see deviancy in certain people (even those in leadership) whose "god is their belly, who worship their own appetites" (Philippians 3:19). Thankfully, there are many more in the Church who do serve God and uphold the dignity of the human person (something that atheism and agnoticism can never truly do), and we are working to get these deviants brought to justice. Deo Gratias.
He should be burnt at the stake. No one should have to allow their tax money to be used to help feed, house, and medically support this animal.
When I do confessional, I pork wives & daughters. I really don't get it with the man-boy butt sex. Why would I throttle your son when your wife is so horny?
That is some kind of creepy story.
Hope the ex-priest gets what he deserves, in this life, and the next.