This post has been updated to include the letter that was sent hom to parents of St. Jerome students yesterday.

Three priests with connections to St. Jerome Parish in Winchester Park and one former teacher have been charged with various counts of rape, indecent exposure and sexual assault.

District Attorney Seth Williams has charged Fathers Edward Avery, 68, Charles Engelhardt, 64, and James Brennan, 47, and former teacher Bernard Shero, 48, with rape and indecent sexual assault.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with child endangerment. The former Secretary for Clergy of the Archdiocese under former Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua is said to have failed to protect the St. Jerome’s 10-year-olds from the abuse.

The crimes occurred between 1996 and 2000.

[Disclosure: NEast Philly Editor Shannon McDonald was a student at St. Jerome's at the time of these crimes.]