The jury in the trial of two Philadelphia Catholic priests has reached a verdict. Msgr. William Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy; on the two charges of child endangerment, he was acquitted on one of them, and found guilty on the other. The jury was deadlocked on two charges against Rev. James Brennan: one for attempted rape, and one for child endangerment.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
The witch-hunt has come to an end, and those who have been clamoring for blood lost big time. What made this a witch-hunt was the decision of former Philadelphia D.A. Lynne Abraham to summarily ignore what she was empowered to do in 2001: she was given the charge “to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by individuals associated with religious organizations and denominations.” Had she done so, those cases of minors who may have been sexually molested by ministers, rabbis, and others, would have been investigated. Instead, absolutely nothing was done about these cases.
On March 31, 2011, I sent Abraham a letter [click here] in the overnight mail asking her to identify which “religious organizations and denominations” she pursued other than the Roman Catholic Church. She never answered. After all, what could she say?
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and church-chasing attorneys like Marci Hamilton, are today’s big losers. They never cared about getting Fr. Brennan, and they didn’t care a whole lot more about getting Msgr. Lynn on child endangerment. They wanted the big prize—they wanted to nail a high-ranking clergyman on conspiracy. Had they won on this count, they would have been in the driver’s seat to pursue other “conspirators” nationally. Looks like their car ran out of gas in Philadelphia.
