Allegheny County D.A. ends church sex abuse probe

The Allegheny County District Attorney has closed an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse by priests who served under former Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua when he led the Diocese of Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. reviewed the cases and "determined that none of the allegations merited criminal prosecution," his spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday.

The decision dims one spotlight on the retired church leader as another is flaring across the state.

Zappala launched his probe in March, after Philadelphia prosecutors arrested four current and former priests on sex abuse and related charges and a grand jury report faulted Bevilacqua and church officials for failing to remove abusive priests and help their victims.

Bevilacqua served as the leader of the Pittsburgh diocese from 1983 to 1988, when he came to Philadelphia. As the clergy sex abuse scandal was roiling the church nationally in 2002, his successor, Bishop Donald Wuerl, asked Allegheny prosecutors to review eight allegations of child sex abuse by Pittsburgh-area priests during Bevilacqua's tenure.

At the time, Zappala's office interviewed victims and determined there was no crime to prosecute. The new review reached the same conclusion, Manko said.

Bevilacqua, 88, has never been charged in connection with any abuse allegations and has been out of the limelight since retiring in 2003.

But he remains a central figure in the Philadelphia case. Prosecutors want him to sit for a videotaped deposition that could be used at the priests' trial next March.

The defendants include one of Bevilacqua's top aides, Mgsr. William J. Lynn, who as secretary of clergy for 12 years recommended assignments for priests throughout the archdiocese. Prosecutors have charged Lynn with endangerment for allegedly protecting abusive priests or knowingly placing them in posts that gave them access to children.

In its report, the grand jurors said they also wanted to hold Bevilacqua accountable. "The Grand Jurors have no doubt that his knowing and deliberate actions during his tenure as Archbishop also endangered thousands of children in the Philadelphia Archdiocese," they wrote.

But Bevilacqua's lawyers have maintained that the cardinal is too sick to testify. They say he suffers from cancer, dementia, anxiety and depression, and requires round-the-clock care.

William Sasso, Bevilacqua's longtime lawyer, described for the grand jury a visit in which he said the cardinal struggled to recognize him.

"He was unable to focus on his current thoughts," Sasso said, according to a transcript of his testimony. "At times he was drifting off."

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina wants to see for herself. She has ordered the archdiocese to turn over two years of his medical records, and bring the cardinal to her courtroom next month so she can decide if he is competent.