MAN ARRESTED AFTER SUING THE VATICAN

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A man charged with assaulting a priest at a Jesuit retirement home has sued the Vatican, claiming it knew its priest had sexually molested him and others, and failed to protect him from being "raped, tortured, and forced to engage in sexual acts with his own brother," when they were children.
William Lynch, 43, was arrested on Friday, 2 days after he sued the Vatican, the Oakland Archdiocese, the Jesuit Order, The Christian Family Movement and others in Federal Court. Lynch was accused of assaulting the Rev. Jerold Lindner, 65, in the lobby of a retirement home in Los Gatos, in May this year.
Lynch claims Lindner oversaw his rape, torture and abuse at a summer camp when he was 7, and that the religious defendants knew of Lindner's propensities, and covered for him for decades.
"In May 1975, plaintiff was entrusted to a CFM [Christian Family Movement] children's camp in Portola State Park in the state of California, whereat he was raped, tortured, and forced to engage in sexual acts with is own brother by Jesuit priest and CFM Camp Spiritual Advisor Jerold W. Lindner. Plaintiff was 7 years old at that time," according to the complaint.
"Not only did the Jesuit Order know of Lindner's propensities for child rape and abuse, Lindner was well known by his order as a 'torturer of children.' He was specifically known for sexual gratification while torturing his victims among his order, and his reputation and knowledge of his crimes extended all the way to the Holy See in the 1970s [and] 1980s."
Lynch's lawyer told The Associated Press last week that Lynch put up $25,000 bail and will plead not guilty to the assault charges. No explanation was provided why Lynch was arrested 2 days after he filed his lawsuit for an assault that allegedly occurred in May.
Lynch says in his complaint that the Vatican and the other defendants continue to protect the retired priest after "decades of abuse and hundreds of victims."
"Lindner was a Roman Catholic Priest and employee of Defendant Catholic Church for over four decades," according to the complaint.
"Even now, although the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See know of Lindner's decades of abuse and hundreds of victims, Lindner still receives a pension from the Holy See and Oakland Archdiocese and has yet to be defrocked," the complaint states.
Lindner is not named as a defendant in Lynch's complaint.
The Associated Press reported on Friday, however, that "Father Lindner, 65, has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his sister and nieces and nephews. ... He has previously denied abusing the Lynch boys and has not been criminally charged. The abuse falls outside the statute of limitations."
The AP report continued: "Father Lindner was removed from the ministry and placed at the Los Gatos retirement home in 2001.
"He was named in two additional lawsuits for abuse between 1973 and 1985, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The cases were included in a $660 million settlement struck between the church and more than 550 plaintiffs in 2007."
Lynch claims that the Vatican and the other defendants not only covered for Lindner's sexual abuse but continued to promote him despite their guilty knowledge.
"Lindner's sexual abuse of children began in [the] 1950s, continued through the 1970s and persisted into the 1980s, when Lindner was actually promoted by defendants to a teacher post at an all boys school, Loyola High School in Los Angeles," according to the complaint.
"Lindner actually abused his own nieces, nephews and a younger sibling, all of which was brought to the attention of the Catholic Church by Lindner's own brother. One memorandum among his superiors regarding Lindner's conduct reads that the accusations ... should be kept 'internal to the Society of Jesus.' Further, the Catholic Church has never reported Lindner's crimes, despite knowledge of them, to any law enforcement agency, parent or teacher," according to the complaint.
Lynch and his brother settled a previous lawsuit for their alleged abuse at the children's camp, accepting $625,000 from the Jesuits of the California Province in 1998, the AP reported.
According to his federal complaint: "The sexual abuse of plaintiff, and the circumstances under which the abuse occurred, caused plaintiff to develop various psychological coping mechanisms and symptoms of psychological distress, including great shame, guilt, rage, alcohol abuse, self-blame, depression, repression and disassociation. As a result, plaintiff was unable to perceive or know the existence or nature of his psychological and emotional injuries and their connection to the sexual abuse perpetuated upon him by Lindner.
"Plaintiff is still unaware of the deep and troubling psychological pain caused by Lindner and all defendants."
Lynch seeks punitive damages.
He is represented by Eugene P. Harris with Geragos & Geragos of Los Angeles.

A victim of child rape by Newjesuit presbyter Jerold Lindner attacked his rapist with his bare fists and soundly beat him up. The San Jose, California, man, William Lynch, took the sword of justice into his own hands. He told the press: "You can’t put into words what this guy [Lindner] did to me. He stole my innocence and destroyed my life." Lynch was age 7 at the time when presbyter Lindner started raping him on Newchurch-sponsored camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The presbyter told the child: "You will go to Hell if you tell anyone what happened."
Who can blame the victim? The ecclesiastical and civil "justice" systems completely failed. The presbyter had raped not only Lynch, but also his little brother. But instead of punishing the presbyter, Newchurch officials hid its presbyter's crimes and let him continue his predations upon children unabated.
The rapist presbyter had been fingered by a dozen children and parents up and down California while Newchurch popes and bishops sat on their hands. Even when the presbyter's own sister, nieces, and nephews accused him of having raped them for years while Newchurch popes and bishops sat on their hands. Most of presbyter Lindner’s family severed contact with him after discovering he had raped family members as young as age 3. Lindner ended up with bruises and lacerations as a result of the victim's justice -- a lot less than what Lindner inflicted on his child victims. He was well enough to drive himself to the hospital.
But such is the injustice of the ecclesiastical and civil "justice" systems that it is the victim who is arrested. The rapist presbyter gets of scot free because of an arbitrary "statute of limitations" in California for child rape. But California has no statute of limitations for murder. Go figure!
The Lynch brothers were aged 5 and 7 when presbyter Lindner, on camping trips sponsored by Newchurch, took them into the Santa Cruz mountains and raped them repeatedly. A psychologist said of the incident: "Reading about Lindner in media accounts throughout the years and realizing he had gone unpunished could have pushed Lynch to act. Imagine holding something inside for 35 years and letting it fester. He’s probably thinking, 'You're living your life and here I am a failure and all because of what you did to me on that day.’" Yes, imagine.
There have been several other instances of frustrated child-victims exacting justice from guilty Newchurch clergy when the ecclesiastical and civil "justice" systems have completely failed. Newchurch and civil authorities have worked to keep these instances of retributive justice quiet, probably fearing that by their example, numerous others of the 100,000 child victims of Newchurch bishops and presbyters would get the courage to act.
In Baltimore, Maryland, a child-victim of assault and sodomy by a Newchurch presbyter shot the clergyman three times after the presbyter told him to go away when he demanded an apology. The victim in that case was acquitted of attempted murder. The notorious paedophile presbyter John Geoghan, who was considered too vile even by the prisoners, was strangled to death in his jail cell. Geoghan had been convicted of molesting as many as 150 boys.
The presbyter's own sister, whom Lindner also raped repeatedly, told the press: "Jerry’s [presbyter Lindner] violent, and I would not be surprised if he did get beat up. I could understand somebody getting that mad. I’ve often said myself that I don’t trust myself around him. I would likely wind up in jail because I'd probably kick him somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine — and I’m his sister." The presbyter's own brother, a retired Los Angeles police officer, whose 8-year-old daughter the presbyter had assaulted, told the press: "I told him he best get in his vehicle and leave. I said, 'If I go out to the truck and get my off-duty weapon out of the glove box, you're a dead man." In essence, the child-rapist presbyter's own family said that it was just for Lindner to be beat up for his vile crimes!
It was this sleaze that Newchurch bishops and popes, and even the civil "justice" system protected. He's no "priest." He should have been run out of Newchurch on a rail, but only the victim seems to have had any sense of justice. But presbyter Lindner may not be the only one to be "punched out" over these crimes. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court charging Benedict-Ratzinger and Newvatican for complicity in rape. The lawsuit also charges the Jesuit authorities, who knew of presbyter Lindner's continuing crimes, as proven by an internal memorandum on the subject, and yet concealed them from authorities.
The Executive Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by P[resbyters] summed up the situation by saying: "I certainly understand the frustration of a victim whose life is devastated while church officials continue to shield and protect and pay and coddle." Benedict-Ratzinger, are you listening, or are you just stone deaf to the cries of your children?

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