Most Americans have never heard of Fr. Jerold Lindner, but Will Lynch is on a mission to change that. So Lynch went to Fr. Jerry’s retirement home, full of other retired priests, and beat him up in front of onlookers. Then he ran.
Later he turned himself in, and plans to use the publicity surrounding his assault case to bring attention to Fr. Jerry. And truth be told, if anyone ever deserved to be given a good sucker punch in the face, it’s probably Fr. Jerry.
Fr. Jerry is a 65-year-old retired priest in Los Gatos, California. What did he do to deserve the beating?
Well, what didn’t he do, is the better question. For many years, Fr. Jerry sexually abused young children in his care, including Will Lynch and his brother (whom he also forced to abuse each other. I can’t even type the details here, it’s so disgusting).
Unfortunately, as we know, child abuse and sexual assault, like almost all crimes except murder, have a statute of limitations. So Fr. Jerry was never charged with the abuse of Will Lynch, although several years ago, Lynch did reach a large monetary settlement with the priest and the diocese.
It’s not quite clear what prompted Lynch to head down to see Fr. Jerry when he did recently, but Lynch has been quite clear about what he plans to do next.
“I think there’s an opportunity here with this media attention that I can possibly … help people seek justice,” Lynch told the AP.
It appears he may have a lot of supporters. Signs held outside the courthouse where Lynch was attending a hearing included slogans like “Free Willy” and supporters have said they’re starting an online fund to raise money for his defense. I’m waiting for the “LYNCH mob!” signs next.
But wait a minute. Since when do we not only condone but encourage individuals to attack, 35 years later, the person who abused them?
Probably when it seems, over and over, that the Catholic Church repeatedly covered up allegations of abuse and refuses to punish the priests within the church legal system, except to move them around or ask them to retire. Probably when adults, who were abused as children and take years to recover, finally come to grips with incidents decades later– and find they have no recourse because of the statute of limitations.
Lynch may also think that this is the only way for the church to take notice of how frustrated its victims have become at a system still failing to take much concrete action against alleged child abusers. He may actually make some progress this way.
Just taking a cursory look through some comments online gives you a taste of the popular sentiment out there:
“Tell me where to send my donation to the Free Will Lynch Fund.”
“Beating up a cultist is no different than beating up a Nazi.”
“I’m normally not into vigilante justice, but to hell with that this serial baby fucker deserves to find out what it feels like to be on the receiving end as there is NO LEGAL RECOURSE.”
“Pity. He should of killed the bastard and then he would have a defense of justifiable homicide.”
“Thanks Will, for punching one of these perverts for all of us.”
Eye for an eye?
However much we sympathize with Will Lynch and all the other victims out there, though, we can’t possibly sympathize with what he did to Fr. Jerry. No matter how much the priest deserves punishment, no matter how little justice Lynch can realistically get at this point (or how good it felt to punch the priest in the face), the answer is never to take justice into your own hands.
It’s difficult to defend a priest who did such horrible things, and I’m afraid that’s what Lynch will accuse his detractors of doing. But, quite simply, if we allowed people to decide on their own form of justice every time they’re wronged, we would have a society of chaos.
It’s true that a statute of limitations has run out in this case– but then that’s a good reason to go fight for a change to the law, not to punch a man in the face on a whim.
Tags: California, court case, priest abuse, revenge, Roman Catholicism
