Monsignor McLoone said yesterday that his biggest goal for the Downingtown parishioners is that he wants "them to know I will be there to support them, to walk with them."
Attorney Jeff Lindy, who represents Lynn, with attorney Thomas Bergstrom, said yesterday that Lynn is still pastor of St. Joseph's and had last week "requested a leave so he could attend to his legal duties."
Added Lindy: "He's innocent. The charges don't apply to him."
Parishioners at St. Joseph's and St. Katharine Drexel's were informed of the change during services over the weekend.
McLoone, whom archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said is "beloved" by his parishioners, told his flock of the news. Of the faithful in Downingtown, he said: "I do think it's a very hard time for them because their pastor, it's a person they know and loved; I'm sure they will have conflicting emotions."
Farrell said that Monsignor Joseph Marino, the Chester County vicar, said Mass at St. Joseph's over the weekend.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams on Feb. 10 released a scathing grand-jury report accusing Lynn of endangering children by shielding pedophile priests from detection and shuffling them into unsuspecting parishes. Prosecutors charged Lynn with two counts of child endangerment.
The grand jury, in its blistering report, also accused two priests, one former priest and a lay teacher of rape and related charges in connection with sexual offenses on two boys between 1996 and 2000. Charles Engelhardt, 64, and Edward Avery, 68, both priests; former priest James Brennan, 47; teacher Bernard Shero, 48; and Lynn were arrested the day the grand-jury report was released.
The arrests are believed to be the first time nationally that a high-ranking church official - Lynn - has been charged on allegations that he concealed priest sexual abuse.
