PHILADELPHIA - A Roman Catholic church official apologized to a victim of priest sexual abuse on the final day of testimony in his groundbreaking child-endangerment trial.
Jurors are set to hear closing arguments Thursday after the defense for Monsignor William Lynn and a codefendant rested Tuesday afternoon.
Lynn, 61, who was the Philadelphia archdiocese secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, is the first US church official charged over his handling of priest-abuse complaints. He and the Rev. James Brennan have been on trial for 10 weeks.
Brennan has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a teen in 1999. Edward Avery, a priest who was removed from ministry, pleaded guilty days before his trial to a 1999 sexual assault and is in prison.
Lynn testified that he tried to get priests accused of abuse out of parishes and into treatment, but said his power was limited because Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, now deceased, had the final say.
Avery’s victim was abused years after Lynn had deemed the priest and part-time disc jockey guilty of an earlier abuse complaint. Lynn, however, said that Avery was one of his first referrals when an archdiocesan review board was formed after the priest-abuse crisis exploded in Boston in 2002.
That was “way too late’’ for Avery’s victim, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington snapped.
“And I’m sorry about that,’’ Lynn replied.
Lynn said that Bevilacqua would not permanently remove a priest unless the man was diagnosed as a pedophile. That was rare among the dozens of priests accused of raping or molesting children in Philadelphia.
Defense lawyers call the mild-mannered Lynn a scapegoat for the alleged failings of the archdiocese.
Asked Tuesday if it is not immoral to keep predators in ministry, a weary Lynn asked, “You want me to answer for the whole church?’’
No other Catholic officials in Philadelphia have been charged despite two scorching grand jury reports on priest sexual abuse, one in 2005 that did not lead to charges because the statute of limitations had expired, and another last year that led to the charges against Lynn and four others. The remaining two men, a priest and a teacher charged with abuse, will be tried separately because they are not archdiocesan priests.
Lynn testified that in 1994 he drew up a list of priests who had been accused, to let Bevilacqua and his top aides know the scope of the abuse complaints contained in secret, locked archives at the archdiocese.
Instead, the cardinal had the list destroyed soon after he read it, according to a memo turned over by the archdiocese just weeks before trial. Lynn said he never knew that until the memo surfaced.