State's high court to hear Lynn case

PENNSYLVANIA'S highest court will review the long-debated prosecution of a Roman Catholic church official who was tried, imprisoned and then freed over his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints.

Philadelphia prosecutors want to restore Monsignor William Lynn's 2012 child-endangerment conviction, which an appeals court threw out last year. Lynn is now on house arrest after serving 18 months of his 3- to 6-year sentence.

Lynn, 63, was the first U.S. church official ever charged with keeping accused priests in ministry. Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said at sentencing that Lynn "enabled monsters in clerical garb . . . to destroy the souls of children."

However, defense lawyers have argued from the start that the endangerment law should not apply because Lynn was never legally responsible for any individual child's welfare. The Superior Court agreed, in a decision posted hours after Christmas last year.

"I hope the court is going to use this as a vehicle to resolve this case once and for all," defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom said yesterday.

Lynn will remain on house arrest at St. William Parish on Rising Sun Avenue, in Crescentville, until the state Supreme Court decides the case. That could take a year, given the court's request yesterday for written briefs and oral arguments.

Assistant District Attorney Hugh J. Burns Jr., who argued the appeal, declined to comment.

His office had argued at trial that Lynn transferred predators from parish to parish as secretary for clergy at the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. Lynn's conviction stems from the case of one priest, Edward Avery, found to have abused an altar boy in 1998 after such a transfer.