Pittsburgh D.A. ends clergy abuse inquiry

The Allegheny County, Pa., district attorney has closed an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse by priests who served under Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua when he led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. reviewed the cases and "determined that none of the allegations merited criminal prosecution," his spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday.

The decision dims one spotlight on the retired Philadelphia archbishop as another is flaring across the state.

Zappala launched his probe in March, after Philadelphia prosecutors arrested four current and former priests on sex abuse and related charges and a grand jury report alleged that Bevilacqua and church officials had failed to remove abusive priests and help their victims.

Bevilacqua led the Pittsburgh diocese from 1983 to 1988, when he came to Philadelphia.

As the clergy sex-abuse scandal was roiling the church nationally in 2002, his successor in Pittsburgh, Bishop Donald Wuerl, asked prosecutors to review eight allegations of child sex abuse by priests during Bevilacqua's tenure.

At the time, Zappala's office interviewed alleged victims and determined there was no crime to prosecute. The new review revisited those cases and reached the same conclusion, Manko said. He did not elaborate.

Bevilacqua, 88, has never been charged in connection with any abuse allegations and has been out of the limelight since retiring in 2003. But he remains a central figure in the Philadelphia case. Prosecutors want him to sit for a videotaped deposition that could be used at the priests' trial next March.

The defendants include one of Bevilacqua's top aides, Mgsr. William J. Lynn, who as secretary of clergy in Philadelphia for 12 years recommended assignments for priests throughout the archdiocese.

Prosecutors have charged Lynn with child endangerment, saying he protected abusive priests or knowingly placed them in posts that gave them access to children.

In their report, the grand jurors said they wanted to hold Bevilacqua accountable. "The grand jurors have no doubt that his knowing and deliberate actions during his tenure as archbishop also endangered thousands of children in the Philadelphia Archdiocese," they wrote.

Bevilacqua's lawyers have maintained that the cardinal is too sick to testify. They say he suffers from cancer, dementia, anxiety and depression, and requires round-the-clock care.

William Sasso, Bevilacqua's longtime lawyer, described for the grand jury a visit in which he said the cardinal struggled to recognize him.

"He was unable to focus on his current thoughts," Sasso said, according to a transcript. "At times he was drifting off."

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina has ordered the archdiocese to turn over two years of Bevilacqua's medical records, and bring the cardinal to her courtroom next month so she can decide if he is competent.