Catholic official jailed for sexual abuse cover-up

Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first U.S. Catholic official convicted for covering up the sexual abuse of children, has been sentenced to three to six years in prison.

Lynn, 61, has been in jail since his June 22 conviction on endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors were seeking the maximum penalty—up to seven years.

“You knew full well what was right, Monsignor Lynn, but you chose wrong,” said Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina in sentencing him on July 24. Sarmina told Lynn that he enabled “monsters in clerical garb . . . to destroy the souls of children, to whom you turned a hard heart.”