Will Pope Francis Encounter Convicted Msgr. William Lynn in Philly Prison?

Last updated on: July 6, 2015 at 7:06 pm by Kathy Schiffer

Will Pope Francis Encounter Convicted Msgr. William Lynn in Philly Prison? 2015-07-06T19:06:26-05:00 Kathy Schiffer

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When Pope Francis visits the U.S. this Fall, will he meet the priest who’s in jail for failing to report incidents of clergy abuse?

The Catholic Herald connected the dots on this story: They reported this morning that the prison which the Holy Father will visit during his U.S. visit, Philadelphia’s Curren-Fromhold Correctional Facility, is the same facility where convicted cleric Monsignor William Lynn is housed.

By Andrew Bardwell from Cleveland, Ohio, USA (Jail Cell) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Curren-Fromhold facility holds 8,100 prisoners in its sprawling complex of prisons. But in Philadelphia, a city which is still reeling from the clergy abuse scandal, it seems likely that Monsignor Lynn, the first Church official convicted for a supervisory role over priests accused of sexually abusing minors, will be among those selected to meet the Holy Father when he visits the prison in September.

Monsignor Lynn, you may recall, was secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 through 2004, serving under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. While he was not himself accused of abuse, he supervised priests who were accused of sexually abusing minors, and he failed to report the accusations to authorities. For that, he was sentenced in 2012 to three to six years in prison for endangering the welfare of children.

Msgr. Lynn has just returned to prison for the second time. He served nearly eighteen months behind bars; but in January 2014, a Superior Court overturned his conviction, and he was released to live under house arrest, pending further appeals. From January 2014 until April 28, 2015, Msgr. Lynn lived quietly at St. William parish in Centreville. However, in April 2015 the state Supreme Court overturned the appeals court ruling, returning Msgr. Lynn to custody.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer,

[Monsignor] Lynn argued in his appeal that he could not be convicted for his supervisory role because the state child-endangerment statute was not amended to include supervisors until 2007 – three years after he left as clergy secretary.

Pope Francis, who famously called the Church a “field hospital for sinners,” has declared a Year of Mercy for the Catholic Church, which will officially begin on December 8. His commitment to extend mercy to the marginalized will focus on the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned.

Following his visit to Curren-Fromhold, Pope Francis will head to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where he will celebrate the concluding Mass of the World Meeting of Families. Then he’ll be off to Philadelphia International Airport, where he’ll greet WMF volunteers and supporters before heading back to Rome.

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