Explosive report: Bishop sexually harassed priests, seminarians, spent millions of Church dollars

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NEWSCATHOLIC CHURCH, HOMOSEXUALITYFri Jun 7, 2019 - 3:28 pm EST

Explosive report: Bishop sexually harassed priests, seminarians, spent millions of Church dollars​

Dorothy Cummings McLean

Catholic, Crisis In The Catholic Church, Diocese Of Wheeling-Charleston, Homosexuality, Michael Bransfield, Sex Abuse Crisis In Catholic Church, Theodore Mccarrick, West Virginia

WEST VIRGINIA, June 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― An explosive report alleges that the retired Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston was a sex pest who spent millions of dollars on an “extravagant and lavish lifestyle.”

According to an article that appeared Wednesday in the Washington Post , Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, 75, gave cash gifts totaling $350,000 to fellow priests, including important prelates and young priests upon whom he allegedly foisted his attentions.

The report also detailed sexual harassment and bullying: “…a succession of younger male clerical assistants complained to church officials in West Virginia that Bransfield was sexually harassing them. Similar concerns were raised about Bransfield’s conduct in Philadelphia, where he taught at a Catholic high school, and in the District of Columbia, where he was head of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from 1990 to 2005.”

Seminarians were apparently told to make their “boundaries clear” or that they had no choice but to participate in “sleepovers” and trips with Bransfield. . . .

The unusual source of Wheeling-Charleston’s wealth​

The money had not been Bransfield’s to give. Although West Virginia has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is rich because, strangely enough, it owns oil in Texas. . . .

. . . Homosexual bullying

However, love of luxury was allegedly not the the bishop’s only vice. The report into Bransfield’s tenure also details homosexual bullying.

According to the Post : “…a succession of younger male clerical assistants complained to church officials in West Virginia that Bransfield was sexually harassing them. Similar concerns were raised about Bransfield’s conduct in Philadelphia, where he taught at a Catholic high school . .
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Bishop Lori also stated . . . .
Lori also revealed that Bransfield’s “pattern of excessive and inappropriate spending” was enabled by a “culture of fear.”

“As we seek to understand how such behavior was able to occur over the course of Bishop Bransfield’s 13-year-long tenure, it is evident from those who spoke with investigators that the Bishop’s management style and personality undermined the effectiveness of diocesan policies, controls and oversight procedures,” he wrote.
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Assuming the almost certain carry over of this enabling of sinful and criminal behavior of Bishop Bransfield did not merely stop with financial improprieties . . .
. . . was enabled by a “culture of fear.”
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This “culture of fear” was almost certainly exploited regarding the alleged homosexual harassment too.

Bishop Bransfield told LifeSiteNews regarding this Washington Post story that he has been “misrepresented”.
Bishop Bransfield told LifeSiteNews over the phone that he feels that he’s been “misrepresented.”

“I just feel that I’ve been misrepresented in many, many ways,” he said.

Bransfeld said that he was not allowed to participate in the investigation, and that he has never seen the materials described in the Washington Post article. He also said that the investigation was supposed to be kept confidential, and that he was supposed to be able to defend himself.

“It was not kept confidential,” he said, referring to the leak to the Post, “and I have not been able to defend myself.”
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From The Washington Post . . . .
. . . The investigation was launched by the Vatican last fall after clerics in West Virginia raised concerns about Bransfield’s behavior. Five lay investigators concluded that the cash gifts were part of a broader pattern of abuse of power by the bishop, including harassing young priests and spending church money on personal indulgences.

“Bishop Bransfield adopted an extravagant and lavish lifestyle that was in stark contrast to the faithful he served and was for his own personal benefit,” they wrote in the final report.

During his 13 years as bishop in West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the nation, Bransfield spent $2.4 million in church money on travel, much of it personal, which included flying in chartered jets and staying in luxury hotels, according to the report. Bransfield and several subordinates spent an average of nearly $1,000 a month on alcohol, it says. The West Virginia diocese paid $4.6 million to renovate Bransfield’s church residence after a fire damaged a single bathroom. When Bransfield was in the chancery, an administrative building, fresh flowers were delivered daily, at a cost of about $100 a day — almost $182,000 in all . . .
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...673edf2d127_story.html?utm_term=.da88f1826505

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More will undoubtedly be coming out.
 
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Oh, this is awful ☹️. Just reading that has made me shudder, how truly awful.

I wonder what the next step will be.
 
Before V2 bishops were accountable to their archbishop Metropolitan, to the papal Nuncio for their country, and to offices in the Curia, in Rome. After V2, there was extreme emphasis on collegiality, everyone is equal. The Curia was depowered, the Metropolitan is now only there for ceremonial purposes.

The national conference of bishops has been often controversial, rarely effective. It tends to be run by the mostly lay full time staff, not the bishops who all have full time jobs else where. The typical diocese has far more laity in leadership positions than in 1960. That’s ok, but isn’t accountability.

The way to restore Accountability is to restore the 1960 chain of command. Eliminate 90 percent of the USCCB bureaucracy.
 
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twf . . .
Any chance McCarrick was kingmaker for the guy?
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@KMG . . .
Bransfield was part of the McCarrick mafia.
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@Weserthy . . . .
He was indeed a McCarrick protege.
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Wikipedia. . . .
. . . He received episcopal consecration on February 22, 2005, from
Cardinal William Henry Keeler,
with Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick
and Bishop Bernard William Schmitt
as co-consecrators, at St. Joseph’s Cathedral. . . .
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(Bold of McCarrick mine)

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You are asking some of the right questions for sure twf.

We need to have an outside audit by a big league accounting firm of all US Catholic dioceses.

If McCarrick is done being investigated by the hierarchy this would be an unconscionable omission (at least it would seem that way on the surface).

Actually Mr. McCarrick belongs in a Vatican jail cell where he can be questioned at will for this ongoing investigation needed, and live out a life of prayer and penance.
 
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