Monsignor Lynn is going to prison for three to six years.
Lynn, 61, the first member of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to be found guilty of shielding a child-molesting priest, was given the sentence this morning by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa. Lynn could have faced a maximum of seven years in prison.
His defense lawyers said they planned to appeal his conviction. A bail hearing for Lynn has been set for Aug. 6.
Lynn has been jailed since June 22, when a jury found him guilty of one count of endangering children after a three-month trial. Lynn was acquitted of a second endangering count and a conspiracy charge.
Jurors could not make a decision on attempted rape and conspiracy charges faced by Lynn’s co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan. The District Attorney’s office announced Monday that it will retry Brennan. No date was set for the new trial.
Lynn became the first high-placed Catholic administrator in America to be arrested in a child-molestation case, charged with protecting priests who preyed on children.
A grand jury charged in 2011 that the monsignor, as secretary for clergy under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, was responsible for sex crimes against two minors committed by Brennan and another priest, Edward Avery, after he had investigated them. Grand jurors said Lynn had put children in jeopardy because he had not removed the them from ministry.
Before and during a trial that began March 26, Lynn’s lawyers insisted that it was not Lynn, but Bevilacqua who made the decisions on where priests were placed in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
The cardinal, who was the city’s archbishop until 2005, died in January.
