Monsignor William Lynn was convicted for child endangerment on June 22.
For the Catholic Church in the US this conviction shows that “that the courts will not afford clergymen a version of the Nazi’s Nuremburg defense that they “were only following orders”,” according to Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, writing in the Washington Post.
According to Stevens-Arroyo, “The big loser from the timing of Msgr. Lynn’s conviction may be the bishops’ just-launched Fortnight for Freedom. It would be a disaster for the bishops’ authority if the public comes to view this campaign as a smoke-screen to avoid punishing evildoers in the clerical pedophilia.”
Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo is an American scholar of religion and retired Brooklyn College professor emeritus.