Chaput criticised for posting bail for convicted priest

Saturday, January 4th, 2014

Philadelphia Catholic archbishop, Charles Chaput, has defended his decision to use church funds to help with the bail of Church official, Monsignor William Lynn.

City prosecutors had charged Lynn with felony child endangerment, but the state Superior Court ruled that the law that existed at the time did not cover people who did not directly supervise children.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams this week said he would appeal the ruling.

Williams criticised the archdiocese for helping Lynn post his $250,000 bail.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also criticised Chaput.

“Here’s the message Chaput sends … by bailing out Lynn: ‘No matter how egregiously you misbehave and how many kids you endanger, we in the church hierarchy will continue to support you even if you’re found guilty at trial,'” Clohessy said.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput defended his postion.

In a letter to clergy and parishioners Chaput said that helping Lynn come up with $25,000 to post 10 percent of his bail was “both reasonable and just.”

Chaput described the appeals court decision as a matter of legal substance rather than technicalities.

Lynn “presents no danger to anyone,” the archbishop wrote.

“He poses no flight risk. The funding for his bail has been taken from no parish, school or ministry resources, impacts no ongoing work of the church and will be returned when the terms of bail are completed. Nor does it diminish in any way our determination to root out the possibility of sexual abuse from the life of our local church.”

Lynn remains on administrative leave and may not function in public as a priest.

Lynn recently won an appeal of his landmark conviction in the priest-abuse scandal was released from custody Friday after being fitted with an electronic monitoring device.

Lynn is the first U.S. church official to have been charged for hiding complaints that priests were molesting children.

He has spent the last 18 months in prison.

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