the archdiocese. Bevilacqua had ordered Monsignor James Molloy to destroy the list. Picard retaliation During Lynn's trial, it was revealed that in 1996, Monsignor Michael Picard, an archdiocesan pastor at St. Andrew Parish in Newtown, Pennsylvania, had expressed concerns to Bevilacqua regarding a priest assigned to his parish. That unnamed priest had been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in 1982. In response, Bevilacqua ordered Picard to apologize to the priest and spend two weeks on a contemplative retreat. The other priest was transferred to another parish. In response to his allegation, the archdiocese said it had received no complaints about the accused priest's work in 15 years of service to three parishes. That priest died in 2006. Bevilacqua abuse allegation In September 2018, the Diocese of Pittsburgh was sued by Heather Taylor, a former student at St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin School near Pittsburgh. Taylor claimed that Bevilacqua, then bishop of Pittsburgh, had groped her while visiting St. Garbriel. She also accused two other priests on the school faculty of molesting, both of whom were found to have sexually abused minors. Viewpoints In 2000, Bevilacqua testified before the Pennsylvania General Assembly in support of a bill that would enact a moratorium on capital punishment in that state. Bevilacqua was a frequent critic of LGBT rights, called it an "...aberration, moral evil...". He also believed that gay men should not be accepted as Catholic priests. In 2004, Bevilacqua praised the banning of abortion services for women in US military hospitals by an act of Congress. In 2009, Bevilacqua joined other American bishops in condemning the University of Notre Dame for inviting President Barack Obama to be its commencement speaker. This was due to Obama's support for abortion rights for women. Bevilacqua commented:It is my hope and prayer that the University of Notre Dame will rescind the invitation to President Obama to speak at the commencement and withhold the conferral of an honorary degree to him or to anyone who so blatantly disregards the basic moral principles upon which the United States of America was founded. References Sources External links Curriculum vitae in The Daily Catholic Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh History of Bishops webpage "Catholic Church Priests Raped Children in Philadelphia, But the Wrong People Went to Jail": ''Newsweek 1923 births 2012 deaths 21st-century American cardinals 20th-century American cardinals Pontifical Gregorian University alumni American people of Italian descent Roman