US priest trial painful, poignant for Catholics
PHILADELPHIA — Graphic testimony in a Philadelphia priest-abuse trial has ripped open secret church files and reopened old wounds among Roman Catholics.
The testimony this month has proven poignant as adults describe being molested by priests as teens.
Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official to go to trial on child-endangerment charges.
He served as secretary of clergy for 12 years in Philadelphia, where prosecutors say he helped hide child sex-abuse complaints. His lawyers say he took orders from the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
Nearly a dozen alleged victims have testified, and there are more to come.
Philadelphian Jim Ledyard says he hopes the abuse has ended in his church. Ledyard, speaking after a recent noon Mass, says many Catholics will be devastated if more abuse is uncovered.
