Archdiocesan Official Accused of Covering Abuse Begins Trial/ Philadelphia

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/archdiocesan-official-accused-covering-abuse-begins-trial


“The whole country is watching because it’s a key moment in the ongoing story about how the church handles child sex abuse,” said Marci Hamilton, who holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Cardozo School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva University. Lynn’s case could push the focus beyond the perpetrator and to the systemic problems in the church, she said.
“I would really be surprised if [Lynn] were found to be not guilty. The evidence is compelling,” she said.
Hamilton, a leading church/state scholar and counsel in multiple sex abuse cases, said the prosecution’s case hinges on showing a pattern in the archdiocese of putting known clergy abusers of children in contact with other children.
To that end, the prosecution won a major pretrial victory when Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled they could tell jurors how the archdiocese handled 22 past cases of alleged abuse.
“Those cases will be a part of establishing that it wasn’t simply one oversight, it wasn’t an accident that the survivor that’s at the heart of the case against Msgr. Lynn was put into danger’s way,” Hamilton said. “It was actually just an ongoing practice that he was following over the years. ... It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an oversight. It was a system of covering up child sex abuse.”


Bridget Mary's Reflection;
The heart of the issue is that it is systemic and global. Clericalism is the major issue and it's focus is protecting priests and bishops from scandal.  Catholics in the pews must have decision-making authority in the Catholic Church in parishes, dioceses, and in the Vatican to create a more open, accountable and transparent church. And that includes equal numbers of women!  The fox cannot guard the hen house.