A former top Roman Catholic Church official has been placed on
administrative leave following charges of endangering children in
connection with sexual abuse by priests.
Parishioners at St.
Joseph parish in Downingtown, in suburban Philadelphia, were informed at
weekend Masses that Cardinal Justin Rigali had placed Monsignor William
Lynn on leave as of Friday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a
statement Sunday.
Monsignor Joseph McLoone, pastor of St. Catherine
Drexel parish, has been named parochial administrator pro-tem in St.
Joseph, where Lynn has been pastor, the statement said.
Lynn,
secretary of the clergy and a top official in the archdiocese from 1992
to 2004, was accused earlier this month in a scathing grand jury report
of having endangered children by putting two known pedophiles in posts
where they had contact with youngsters.
"The rapist priests we
accuse were well-known to the secretary of clergy, but he cloaked their
conduct and put them in place to do it again," the report said.
Prosecutors
in the city filed felony charges of endangering the welfare of children
against the 60-year-old Lynn, who also was named in a civil lawsuit
filed last week against the archdiocese.
Lynn, the first church
official in the United States charged with a crime after being accused
of keeping problem priests in jobs around children, could get up to 14
years in prison if convicted.
Defence attorney Tom Bergstrom has
said that his client, now free on bail, doesn't concede for a moment
that he knew he was putting children at risk.
He said Lynn will fight
the charges on the grounds that he never supervised children and cannot
therefore be charged with having endangered them.