Pa. monsignor gets 3-6 years in sex abuse cover-up

July 24, 2012 at 12:24p.m.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic monsignor who became the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up sex abuse claims against priests was sentenced today to three to six years in prison by a judge who said he “enabled monsters in clerical garb ... to destroy the souls of children.”

Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, “helped many but also failed many in his 36-year church career,” Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said.

Lynn, who handled priest assignments and child sexual assault complaints from 1992 to 2004, was convicted last month of felony child endangerment for his oversight of now-defrocked priest Edward Avery, who is serving a 2 1/2- to five-year sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting an altar boy in church.

The monsignor said Tuesday: “I did not intend any harm to come to [Avery’s victim]. My best was not good enough to stop that harm.”

Lynn’s lawyers sought probation, arguing that few Pennsylvanians serve long prison terms for child endangerment and their client shouldn’t serve more time than abusers. Defense attorneys, who have vowed an appeal of the landmark conviction, said the seven-year maximum term advocated by the commonwealth “would merely be cruel and unusual.”