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>> pelley: tonight, the monsignor takes the stand. the highest ranking catholic church official ever charged in in a philadelphia courtroom today, the first catholic clergyman to face criminal charges for covering up child sex abuse said he was following the orders of a cardinal. monsignor william lynn described a code of silence as priests suspected of child molestation were transferred from parish to parish in the hope that no one would notice. elaine quijano was in the courtroom. >> reporter: monsignor william lynn testified he had no choice but to follow the directives of his sup...

everest. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. in a philadelphia courtroom today, the first catholic clergyman to face criminal charges for covering up child sex abuse said he was following the orders of a cardinal. monsignor william lynn described a code of silence as priests suspected of child molestation were transferred from parish to parish in the hope that no one would notice. elaine quijano was in the courtroom. >> reporter: monsignor william lynn testified he had no choice but to follow the directives of his sup...

priests from church to church, telling a philadelphia jury he only had the authority to remove priests if they admitted to abusing someone. "every time you put the victims first?" an assistant degree asked? "i believe in my heart i was, yes," the monsignor replied. his argument was he was following orders. that he couldn't do more than he did. >> that's what they said in the nuremburg defense. aren't we tired of that defense. >> this is a jury's decision to make. they'll listen to it and decide whether mob monsignor lynn endangered children by not going to the authorities by telling ...