• Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn gets 3-6 years for cover-up in Catholic priest sex-abuse scandal

    Monsignor William Lynn became the first U.S. church official convicted of a felony. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By NBC News and wire services

    PHILADELPHIA -- Monsignor William Lynn, the most senior U.S. Catholic clergyman convicted in the church’s decades-long sex abuse scandal, was sentenced on Tuesday to three to six years in jail for covering up child sex abuse by priests in Philadelphia.


    The sentence handed down by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina was less than the maximum penalty of seven years in prison for Lynn's conviction on a single count of child endangerment.

    Sarmina said the sentence was meant to punish Lynn for protecting "monsters in clerical garb who molested children … to destroy the souls of children, to whom you turned a hard heart."

    She added: "You knew full well what was right, Monsignor Lynn, but you chose wrong."

    Tim Shaffer / Reuters file

    Monsignor William Lynn is shown walking to the courthouse as the jury deliberates on his sexual abuse trial in Philadelphia on June 20.

    As the former secretary for the clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Lynn, 61, was essentially personnel director for 800 priests from 1992 to 2004. He was convicted last month of covering up the allegations by transferring predatory priests to unsuspecting parishes.

    Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy and a second endangerment count. The jury deadlocked on a 1996 abuse charge against a co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, and prosecutors said Monday that they would retry him.

    Related: Roman Catholic Church official convicted of endangerment in priest-abuse trial

    "I believe that what Lynn did was done by just about every diocese," Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks priest-abuse cases, told NBCPhiladelphia.com. "In most cases, I think the vicar general was well informed, and also the bishop."

    More than 500 U.S. priests have now been convicted of abuse, according to his organization. But Lynn's three-month trial, he said, shows "just how hard it is to demonstrate collusion."

    Bishop Robert Finn and the Kansas City diocese face a misdemeanor charge of failing to report suspected child sexual abuse. Both Finn and the diocese have pleaded not guilty, and are set to go on trial next month.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

    Lynn has been in prison since the June 22 jury verdict, when the trial judge revoked his bail, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    Defense lawyers call Lynn a scapegoat for the Philadelphia archdiocese, and plan an appeal. They will also ask that he be released while the lengthy appeals process plays out, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    They said the trial was flawed on many levels, starting with the fact Lynn was charged with child endangerment under a law revised in 2007 to include those who supervise the caretakers of children. Lynn had left the archdiocese headquarters in 2004, after serving 12 years as secretary for clergy, and returned to parish work.

    Prosecutors pushed for the maximum seven-year sentence, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    "His active, even eager execution of archdiocese policies, carried out in the face of victims' vivid suffering, and employing constant deceit, required a more amoral character, a striving to please his bosses no matter how sinister the business," they wrote in a sentencing memo filed Friday. "At any time during those 12 years, he could have had a moment of conscience."

    This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.

    More content from NBCNews.com:

    Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

  • Roman Catholic Church official convicted of endangerment in priest-abuse trial

    A monsignor who oversaw hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was found guilty of one count of endangering the welfare of a child. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    By NBC News and news services

    UPDATED AT 3:43 p.m. ET: PHILADELPHIA -- A Roman Catholic church official was convicted Friday of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse trial, becoming the first U.S. church official convicted of a crime for how he handled abuse claims.


    Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priest was being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said.

    Lynn, 61, had faced about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three counts he faced — conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment. He was convicted on one of the endangerment counts and acquitted of the other two counts, leaving him with the possibility of up to seven years in prison.

    Matt Rourke / AP

    Monsignor William Lynn walks to the Criminal Justice Center before a scheduled verdict reading on Friday in Philadelphia.

    The jury began deliberating earlier this month after hearing 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that re-focused attention on the broader sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, costing billions in settlements, driving prominent U.S. dioceses into bankruptcy and testing the faith of Roman Catholics.

    In this case, Lynn's job was supervising 800 priests, including investigating sex abuse claims, from 1992 to 2004, in the nation's sixth largest archdiocese, with 1.5 million members.

    Lynn was on trial with Rev. James Brennan. Brennan, 49, was charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996, along with child endangerment.

    In Brennan's case, the jury remained deadlocked on one count of attempted rape and another count of endangering the welfare of a child, NBC10.com reported.

    Read complete coverage from Philadelphia's NBC10.com of the priest abuse trial

    Brennan did not testify during the trial, while Lynn spent three days on the witness stand saying that he did what he could to stop molestation by clergy but that he was only doing his job when he reassigned suspected clergy.

    On cross-examination, Lynn acknowledged that he had not helped the 10-year-old altar boy raped by the Rev. Edward Avery in 1999, seven years after Lynn met with another Avery accuser.

    “And I'm sorry about that,” Lynn said.

    Avery is in prison after admitting the crime.

    One of the key exhibits was a gray folder found in a locked safe at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The folder contains a list of 35 suspected predator-priests -- and was compiled by Lynn in 1994. At least one priest on the list was a parish pastor until this year.

    Lynn, the former secretary for clergy, testified that he created the list from secret church files containing hundreds of child sex-abuse complaints. He said he hoped Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and other superiors would address the growing crisis. Bevilacqua died in January.

    It's unclear who put the surviving copy of Lynn's list in the safe. Lynn denied doing so, or owning the safe. The gray file was found when the safe was smashed open in 2006, two years after Lynn left his archdiocese job. An in-house lawyer said he put the gray folder in his files in 2006 without realizing the list -- sought by a grand jury in 2004 -- was inside.

    A new team of lawyers for the archdiocese turned it over to prosecutors in early February, days after Bevilacqua died. Lynn's trial started March 26.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

    The jury heard from more than a dozen alleged victims, including a nun, a former priest and a series of troubled adults.

    Lynn said he did more than his colleagues to help victims and advance the church's response to both accusers and the accused priests, who were often sent for evaluation or treatment before transfers to new, unsuspecting parishes. Lynn said that only Bevilacqua had the power to remove priests from ministry.

    But prosecutors say Lynn could have quit or called police. Instead, he stayed in the job for 12 years -- and acknowledged he never once contacted authorities.

    This article by NBC10.com includes reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

  • Landmark Catholic priest abuse trial begins in Philadelphia

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    PHILADELPHIA -- After nine years and two grand jury reports, prosecutors have brought a landmark case to trial that explores how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia dealt with child sex-abuse complaints against scores of Roman Catholic priests.

    Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever charged over his handling of abuse complaints. He supervised more than 800 priests as the secretary for clergy in Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004.

    Prosecutors charge that Lynn kept dangerous priests in parish work around children to protect the church's reputation and avoid scandal. They say the church kept secret files dating to 1948 that show a long-standing conspiracy to doubt sex abuse victims and protect priests.

    Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Coelho called the case "a battle between right and wrong within the archdiocese and the office of secretary for clergy."

    Defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom said Monday that Lynn had the "ugly job" of overseeing sex abuse complaints, but that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua alone determined priest assignments and transfers.

    "There is documentary evidence that the sexual abuse of children happened in the Catholic Church," Bergstrom said. "We're not going to run from that. He (Lynn), perhaps alone, is the one who tried to correct it."

    Solemn in court
    Lynn, 61, appeared solemn in court, where he has appeared over the past few months for pretrial hearings and jury selection.

    He has been under investigation for eight years, through two grand jury investigations that blasted Bevilacqua and his successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, saying they covered up child sex complaints lodged against more than 60 priests.

    The church kept secret files dating back to 1948 that show a long-standing conspiracy to doubt sex abuse victims, protect priests and avoid scandal, Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Coelho said in opening statements.

    "You can't protect the church without keeping the allegations in the dark," Coelho told jurors, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. "He kept the parishioners in the dark and he kept the faithful in the dark."

    Coelho called the case "a battle between right and wrong within the archdiocese and the office of secretary for clergy."

    Coelho outlined the decades-old sexual abuse complaints found buried in secret archives to build a case against Monsignor William Lynn, who supervised priests as secretary for clergy from 1992 through 2004. Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged for his administrative role in the sex abuse crisis.

    He is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, who is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996. Both men entered not guilty pleas before the jury Monday.

    Co-defendant Edward Avery, a defrocked priest, entered a surprise guilty plea Thursday to a sexual assault charge and will serve 2½ to five years in prison. Avery also acknowledged that the archdiocese kept him in parish work despite knowing of an earlier complaint lodged against him, a point that could bolster the conspiracy charge against Lynn.

    Coelho said the archdiocese did little or nothing about sex abuse complaints until the church's sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston in 2002.

    "Victims are met with skepticism and priests are believed ... at all costs," Coelho said, speaking softly to the jury.

    'Warning signs or red flags'
    Attorneys for Lynn and Brennan plan to attack the credibility of the priests' troubled adult accusers, though that strategy took a hit last week when Avery pleaded guilty, confirming one accuser's account of a brutal 1999 sexual assault inside a church sacristy. All three priests were to be tried together before Avery admitted that he abused a 10-year-old altar boy.

    Prosecutors say the 61-year-old Lynn transferred priests to new parishes when a problem arose or told parishioners that their priest was taking a "health leave" when he was going for therapy or to a "safe" assignment at an old-age home. Before long, problem priests were back in parish work, with unsupervised access to children.

    "By ignoring warning signs or red flags, Fr. Lynn kept Brennan and Avery in ministry, where they were able to hurt children," Coelho said.

    Lynn remains the focal point of the trial. He could get up to 28 years in prison if convicted of two counts each of conspiracy and child endangerment.

    He has argued that he prepared a list of 37 accused priests in 1994 and sent it up the chain to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua — only to have Bevilacqua have it shredded. The cardinal died this year, but his videotaped deposition could be played at trial.

    The trial will be closely followed by Catholics across the country, including some who say their lives were destroyed.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook