The Morning Call
Allentown, PA
May 14, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — A former attorney for the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese testified Monday that top church officials including retired Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen lied to him about a list of priests suspected of sexually abusing children.
Tim Coyne, who served as the church's general counsel, said a prosecutor asked him in 2004, in the midst of a grand jury investigation of sexual abuse by Philadelphia-area priests, to track down the list of 35 suspected child abusers Monsignor William Lynn had produced in 1994.
Coyne said he contacted five church leaders including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua; Cullen, who was the cardinal's top aide; and Bishop Joseph Cistone, who is now head of the Saginaw, Mich. diocese, but the effort was unsuccessful.
Coyne testified that Cullen's attorney said Cullen had no recollection of the list. The others gave similar replies, Coyne told the court.
"Everyone I spoke to said they didn't know where it was," Coyne said, "and they didn't have a copy of it."
But when church officials earlier this year discovered a hand-written memo documenting instructions from Bevilacqua to shred the list, Coyne admitted under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington that he was left with one conclusion.
"Somebody lied to me, or a lot of people lied to me," Coyne said.
Blessington retorted: "More like everyone lied to you."
"That's fair," Coyne said.
Lynn, 61, is charged with covering up sexual abuse by priests. He is the highest-ranking church official in the nation to face such charges.
He is on trial in Philadelphia county court with Father James Brennan, who is accused of attempting to rape a teenage boy. A third clergyman, Father Edward Avery, pleaded guilty before the start of their trial to a count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a 10-year-old boy.
Cullen, head of the Allentown diocese from 1998 until his retirement in 2009, was not immediately available for comment Monday.
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