What Bevilaqua’s Death Means To Case

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was a central figure in the child sex-abuse case against former priests and an aide in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

Blogger Rocco Palmo, who has reports on the church and knew Cardinal Bevilacqua, told Fox 29 he knew him for 20 years.

Palmo said Bevilacqua said the Cardinal’s death complicates any already difficult case that heads to court next month in Philadelphia.

“His death will add another dimension to it,” Palmo said.

Palmo also said Bevilacqua struggle to reconcile the case, first hand.

“I saw the Cardinal struggle with it, with decisions he had made, with cases … I could see him questioning himself, questioning his judgment, wondering, ‘did I did all I should have done.”

Bevilacqua would have brought to testify against his former aides in the trial that starts on March 26.

Palmo said Bevilacqua lived in a “gilded cage” in recent years and was cut off from some public communications.

Bevilacqua, who led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia for more than 15 years, died on Tuesday night. He was 88.

Bevilacqua died in his sleep at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood after battling dementia and an undisclosed form of cancer, archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said.

Bevilacqua had been the spiritual leader of the 1.5 million-member Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1988 until his retirement in 2003.

Donohue Funeral Home in Upper Darby took in the cardinal's body and will be handling funeral arrangments. Funeral Director John Donohue said the home would be meeting with the archdiocese Wednesday.

Information about the funeral arrangements was pending early Wednesday morning, according to the archdiocese.