Fr Bernárd Lynch – abuse lawsuit dropped
Fr Bernárd Lynch was accused by person/persons unknown just as he was to receive an Award in 2019 from President Michael Higgins. Bernárd Lynch has not been charged with any crime. Those unknown person(s) who made the accusation have now run out of time to bring this claim.
In the UK or Ireland such anonymous accusations are not possible – but in the USA this is permitted!
The allegation was a complete fabrication.
The Clare native is now living in London.
Bernárd’s name was used as a ‘composite’ to try and get money from the Church. He was never indicted. He was never charged with a crime. He was told from the beginning that he was being used to cause massive public embarrassment to himself, family and friends on a day that the President of Ireland and his government were honouring him for his work for LGBTQI+ and HIV/AIDS.
The plaintiffs were never named. Consequently, he would never get his ‘day in court’ to clear his name . . . The First Amendment of the American Constitution guarantees ‘freedom of speech’ and anyone can accuse anyone of a crime and there is no recourse in law when the person/persons making the accusation/s do not have to say who they are. The same is not true in Irish or British law.
Fr Bernárd’s attorney — David Holland — was put on a retainer, until such time as they were both sure that there was no chance of him being ever charged with a crime. He never was.
PRESS RELEASE 9 September 2021
Complete vindication of Fr Bernárd J. Lynch
We are delighted to learn that the defamatory allegations made once again against Fr Bernárd Lynch have turned out to be without basis or even a scintilla of evidence to support them.
These false allegations were made in 2019 just as Fr Bernárd Lynch was receiving a Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from President Michael D.Higgins at the Áras – designed to cause maximum embarrassment.
Fr Bernárd Lynch has been honoured for his extraordinary service over several decades to the LGBT and AIDS communities of New York, London and Ireland and for his courage in the face of tremendous adversity.
He was with the first ever openly LGBT group invited to Áras an Uachtaráin by President Mary Robinson in 1995.
His relationship with his husband Billy Desmond was publicly blessed in 1998 and he became the first serving Catholic priest in the world to have a civil partnership in 2006.
We Are Church Ireland are honoured to have Fr Bernárd Lynch and his husband Billy Desmond as members. In their lives they have shown themselves to be true followers of Christ.
Colm Holmes
Spokesperson
WAC Ireland
Mobile +353 86 606 3636
Registered Charity Number 20203544
Tomorrow will be the (clearly unofficial) feast day of Father Mychal Judge who was the first first-responder to die in the attacks in the World Trade Center in 2001. He will never be officially recognized by the Church as a martyr because he was openly gay. He died as a direct result of fulfilling his ministry.
The Bishops of the US have instituted telephone lines that accept anonymous accusations about priests and they are willingly complicit in accepting any heinous gossip that comes their way. One has to wonder who has the greater sin.
Fr.Bernárd Lynch.
Thank you William for reminding us of Fr Mychal Judge.
”Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?”(Mychal Judge)
https://www.newwaysministry.org/2020/09/11/the-unique-spirituality-of-father-mychal-judge/
My report of Fr. Lynch’s talk to We Are Church Ireland when he was over here to receive the award referred to above.
https://dominusvobiscuit.blogspot.com/2019/11/vatican-hypocrisy.html
Pól, thanks for the video of that amazing speech. Bernárd is a heroic priest, a daunting example to all of us.