The joy of life regained

FR BERNÁRD Lynch moved to New York in 1975. It transformed his life.

He came out as gay to his parents in 1982; he was in ministry work to the city’s gay community, which was dying of AIDS. Of the 600 people he tended, only six were still alive a decade later.

Fr Lynch’s profile in New York grew because of his championing of gay rights. His polemics drew the ire of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, which, in a remarkable coalition, colluded with an organisation called SAFE (Students Against Faggots in Education), the Bronx district attorney’s office, and the FBI in fabricating a child-abuse case against him. He faced 15 years in prison, following his arraignment in Jun 1988.