Archdiocese of Philadelphia Court Case
Lawyers of one accused priest said Rev. Joseph Cistone, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw, witnessed the shredding of the documents in 1994 when he was a church official in the Philadelphia area.
Cistone is not being charged, but was mentioned in the court filing.
Cistone served as Lynn’s assistant in the 1990s and was present during seperate interviews with an alleged victim of sexual assault and father Avery, who is accused of the crime, according to a report of the grand jury signed on Jan. 21, 2011.
The Grand Jury was asked to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by Archdiocesan (of Philadelphia) clergy and employees.
(Monsignor) Lynn's lawyers said Rev. Cistone witnessed the shredding of the documents and misled a grand jury when he did not acknowledge the documents or their destruction during a previous testimony.
Cistone isn't being charged yet, but hopefully he will be.
ReplyDeleteThat document detailed 35 known pedophile priests in the Catholic church in PHilly in 1994. Cardinal Bevilacqua shredded it with Cistone in the room, and Cistone never said anything. Those pedophiles roamed free for 18 years, raping more children along the way.
One of the priests, Fr Cudemo, raped a girl (named "Ruth" in the report), got her pregnant at age 12 and took her for an abortion. He raped a total of 17 children.
There were 35 other priests like Cudemo. Read the report. Cistone could have been a man and stopped it all. Instead, he got a nice promotion to bishop which he never would have gotten if he did the Christian thing.