The grand jury report says, “Monsignor Lynn asked the victim, who had been forced to have oral and anal sex beginning when he was 13 years old to understand that the archdiocese would have taken steps to remove Father Gana from the priesthood had he been diagnosed as a pedophile.”
“But Father Gana was not only having sex with children and teenage minors, Monsignor Lynn explained, he had also slept with women, abused alcohol and stolen money from parish churches,” informed the report of the grand jury.
The rationale: “That is why he remained, with Cardinal Bevilacqua’s blessing, a priest in active ministry. ‘You see, Tim,'” said Monsignor Lynn, ‘he’s not a pure pedophile.'”
Monsignor William Lynn is accused of covering up priestly abuses of young children and shielding pedophiles, and such priests were sent from parish to parish to hunt fresh flocks of victims.
The grand jury report further continues, “Father Stanley Gana, ordained in the 1970s, sexually abused countless boys in a succession of Philadelphia Archdiocese parishes.
“He was known to kiss, fondle, anally sodomize and impose oral sex on his victims. He took advantage of altar boys, their trusting families and vulnerable teenagers with emotional problems … He molested boys on a farm, in vacation houses, in the church rectory. Some minors he abused for years.”
But, as held by Monsignor Lynn, the Church could not punish and evict Gana as a pedophile because he also did it with women, and also abused alcohol, and also stole parish money. Such further acts, in the eyes of the Church absolved Gana from being a pure pedophile.
You see.
So, in other words, if a child predator priest has sex with a woman, he will be kept in ministry ??
It appears the church officials used any excuse they could think of, to protect the predator priests instead of protecting innocent children.
How sickening is that?
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org).
You just can’t make this stuff (twisted logic) up. And you-know-who wept.
Absolutely incredible that Lynn actually spoke these reasons for keep a creep in the ministry to a victim/survivor. Absolutely incredible! There is NO excuse for behavior like this.
Monsignor Lynn should be cut up in strips [like bacon] and fed to rattlesnakes. What more is there to say?
Judy, I think that you pretty accurately summed it up! As long as a priest is a womanizer AND a child molester, he is eligible to stay in the priesthood! Now, that would only make sense to someone in the Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, or to someone, who aspires to joining the Hierarchy. For this, Lynn probably expected a promotion! The sheer range of this kind of sick logic, on the behalf of Lynn, just baffles me! How could an intelligent, highly educated man, like Lynn, come up with an excuse this asinine?
It is possible to rationalize anything. This case however is taken to the extreme. The Sacred Heart of Jesus must be broken and bleeding. The Church is being punished and will continue to be in this world and the next for these great sins. The clergy needs have a public day to repent via receiving the sacrament of reconciliation and penance. THAT will let the world know they are truly sorry and seek the Father’s forgiveness. It should be done by the Pope on down – no one excused. This should occur annually until there is full disclosure and an end to this criminal behavior. May God have Mercy on their souls. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus pour forth rays of Blessings and Grace to the victims and their families. The Peace of Christ be with you.
Do you wonder what the good Lord said to Cardinal Bevilacqua after he died?