This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/us/bishop-bransfield-pope-francis.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Pope Orders Investigation of West Virginia Bishop Over Sex Allegations Fall of a West Virginia Bishop Widens the Catholic Crisis Over Sex Abuse
(about 3 hours later)
Pope Francis has ordered an investigation into allegations that West Virginia’s bishop, Michael J. Bransfield, sexually harassed adults, and has accepted the bishop’s immediate resignation. The blows seem to land nearly every day: Bishops are accused, investigations are ordered, resignations are demanded, damning documents are leaked. The sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church keeps spiraling through the church hierarchy, threatening the standing of Pope Francis.
The pope has assigned the Archbishop of Baltimore, William E. Lori, to handle the investigation and to take temporary charge of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which covers all of West Virginia. The diocese is a small one, with about 75,000 Catholics. On Thursday, an American bishop in West Virginia was brought down by allegations of sexual misconduct, even as a delegation of American church leaders met urgently with the pope behind closed doors over whether the Vatican had ignored past warnings of abuse by a prominent cardinal.
In an announcement posted on the diocese’s website, Archbishop Lori said he would meet with clergy and lay leaders on Thursday and Friday, and that he had opened a hotline for tips. “This is the long expected reckoning of leadership,” said Christopher Bellitto, a professor of history at Kean University in New Jersey who closely follows developments in the church. “It’s been postponed so long, it was finally going to blow up. It blows up in 2018, when it happens to be Francis sitting there.”
The news came as Pope Francis held a closed-door meeting in Rome with leaders of the United States bishops’ conference to discuss a renewed crisis in the American church over sexual abuse. The pope accepted the immediate resignation on Thursday of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, whose diocese covers all of West Virginia, amid unspecified allegations that he had sexually harassed adults. The archbishop of Baltimore, William E. Lori, has been dispatched to take over running the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston temporarily and to investigate Bishop Bransfield’s conduct. The diocese opened a hotline for tips.
Nothing concrete emerged from the meeting. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the bishops’ conference, said afterward only that “it was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange,” and that the bishops look forward to “identifying the most effective next steps.” Two days earlier, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington since 2006, wrote to the priests of his diocese to say that he may soon be stepping down as well. Cardinal Wuerl, once seen as a model in handling abuse cases, drew criticism after revelations that he had allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children to remain in ministry when he was the bishop of Pittsburgh.
Cardinal DiNardo went into the meeting dogged by news reports that he had kept a priest in ministry in his own archdiocese, that of Galveston-Houston, despite pleas from a woman who said the priest had abused her as a young girl. A man told the archdiocese last month that he had been abused by the same priest, and on Tuesday the priest was arrested on child abuse charges. Those cases were included in a grand jury report last month in Pennsylvania that detailed accounts of abuse of more than 1,000 children by more than 300 priests that were covered up for decades. Cardinal Wuerl said in his letter that he would discuss his resignation with the pope in Rome.
The case was only the latest flash point in a growing scandal. The American bishops’ demand for a meeting with the pope was prompted by revelations that the Vatican had made Theodore McCarrick the archbishop of Washington and elevated him to cardinal despite repeated warnings over many years that he had sexually molested adult seminary students. Bishop Bransfield is a close associate of the former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who resigned from the College of Cardinals in July after allegations that he had molested an altar boy decades ago and had coerced adult seminary students to sleep in his bed. He denies the allegations.
Archbishop McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in July after an additional allegation that he had molested an altar boy, a minor. He denies the allegation and is appealing his case to the Vatican. Leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were in Rome on Thursday to discuss the crisis with the pope. The meeting was prompted by revelations that Cardinal McCarrick had been made the archbishop of Washington and elevated to cardinal despite repeated warnings over many years that he had abused seminary students.
Bishop Bransfield is an associate of Archbishop McCarrick, who was one of three prelates chosen to preside at Bishop Bransfield’s 2005 consecration in Wheeling. Bishop Bransfield and the former cardinal were key leaders of the Papal Foundation, which raises millions of dollars for Vatican projects. One of the four Americans in the meeting was Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Houston-Galveston and the president of the conference. He went into the meeting dogged by news reports that he had kept a priest in ministry in his own archdiocese despite pleas from a woman who said the priest had abused her as a young girl. A man told the archdiocese last month that he had been abused by the same priest, and on Tuesday, the priest was arrested on child abuse charges.
The scandal in the church, long focused on abuse of minors, has recently entered a new phase, with two bishops now brought down who have been accused of sexual misconduct with adults. American Catholics across the theological spectrum have been calling for investigations into the interlocking relationships among bishops accused of sexually harassing their priests and seminarians, while covering up for priests who abused minors. Another American who met with the pope happened to be Bishop Bransfield’s cousin, Msgr. Brian Bransfield, the secretary general of the bishops’ conference. The other two were Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the vice president of the conference, and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who heads the pope’s commission on child protection.
Bishop Bransfield has faced serious allegations of misconduct before. During a high-profile 2012 trial of church leaders in Philadelphia, he was accused by two witnesses of associating with a priest who sexually abused minors, and of being aware of the abuse. One witness said that the priest had sexually abused him at a beach house owned by Bishop Bransfield on the Jersey Shore. The bishop denied the claims and was not charged with any crime. Nothing concrete emerged from the meeting. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the bishops’ conference, said afterward only that “it was a lengthy, fruitful and good exchange,” and that the bishops look forward to “identifying the most effective next steps.”
Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Bransfield to lead the West Virginia diocese in 2004. Before that, he was rector of the majestic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The conference asked the Vatican last month to investigate why Archbishop McCarrick was allowed to rise, but it was not clear whether the Americans had pressed that request directly with Francis when they met face to face on Thursday. A Vatican spokesman declined to say. After the meeting, the Vatican released only photographs of the pope at a large wooden table facing his visitors, some of them smiling.
Bishop Bransfield is five days past his 75th birthday, the age at which bishops routinely offer to retire, though many are permitted to stay on. The relentlessly spreading abuse scandal poses the greatest challenge that Pope Francis has faced to his papacy and legacy. As the church was trying to address the McCarrick revelations last month, the pope’s former ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, published an extraordinary letter calling for the pope’s resignation.
Archbishop Lori said in his statement, “I pledge to conduct a thorough investigation in search of the truth into the troubling allegations against Bishop Bransfield and to work closely with the clergy, religious and lay leaders of the diocese until the appointment of a new bishop.” Archbishop Viganò accused Francis of removing disciplinary sanctions that the previous pope, Benedict XVI, had imposed on Cardinal McCarrick, despite evidence that the archbishop himself had treated Cardinal McCarrick as if no sanctions existed. The publication of the letter during the pope’s closely watched trip to Ireland, where the church had been ravaged by abuse revelations, brought into the open a long simmering civil war in the Vatican between supporters and critics of Francis.
Bishop Bransfield comes from a Philadelphia family that includes several other prominent church figures. One of the four American leaders who met with the pope on Thursday was his cousin Msgr. Brian Bransfield, the secretary general of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The letter struck at Francis’ chief vulnerability, his record on sex abuse, where his actions have not kept pace with his promises.
The other two Americans who met with the pope were Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the vice president of the bishops’ conference, and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who heads the pope’s commission on child protection. On Wednesday, the pope took the unprecedented step of summoning the presidents of bishop’s conferences around the world to a conference on the issue in February 2019 — a move in keeping with the pope’s vision of a collegial, bottom-up church that empowered local bishops.
The conference asked the Vatican last month to investigate how Archbishop McCarrick was allowed to climb to the top of the American church hierarchy despite warnings of sexual misconduct with young men. But survivors of sexual abuse were skeptical that some of the same bishops who had failed to take action to protect children and vulnerable adults for decades would suddenly take on a mission of accountability.
But it was not clear by Thursday afternoon whether the Americans had pressed that request directly with Francis when they met face to face on Thursday. A Vatican spokesman declined to say. All the Vatican released to the news media after the meeting were photographs of the pope at a large wooden table facing his visitors, some of them smiling. Though the sexual abuse scandal first erupted into view in America, it has since become a global problem for the church, with revelations of abuse and cover-ups in Australia, Ireland, Belgium, France, Chile and other countries.
The vast scale of the problem in Germany is detailed in a wide-ranging report commissioned by the country’ bishops that was leaked on Wednesday, two weeks before the German bishops had intended to release it. Researchers found that at least 1,670 church workers — more than 4 percent of the clergy — had been involved in the abuse of at least 3,677 children over seven decades. The researchers, who were not given access to confidential records, said there were probably many more cases that their study did not uncover.
And accusations continue to surface in American dioceses. The bishop of Buffalo, Richard J. Malone, has rebuffed a growing clamor for his resignation after a series of investigative reports by a local television station, WKBW, revealing that he kept priests in ministry despite strong evidence they were a threat to children. The most recent report, based on leaked church documents, found that when Bishop Malone, in an effort to demonstrate transparency, released a list of priests and other church officials who had been accused of abuse, he omitted dozens of names.
The precipitous departure of Bishop Bransfield in West Virginia came with little warning, and no details about what he was accused of doing. But the bishop had faced serious allegations of misconduct before. During a high-profile 2012 trial of church leaders in Philadelphia, he was accused by two witnesses of associating with a priest who sexually abused minors and of being aware of the abuse. One witness said that the priest had sexually abused him at a beach house owned by Bishop Bransfield on the Jersey Shore. The bishop denied those claims and was not charged with any crime.
Bishop Bransfield is closely linked with former Cardinal McCarrick, who presided with two other cardinals at his 2005 consecration in Wheeling. The bishop worked closely with Cardinal McCarrick at the Papal Foundation, which raises millions of dollars for Vatican projects.
Bishop Bransfield is five days past his 75th birthday, the age at which it is customary for bishops to offer to resign and retire, though many are permitted to stay on.
Archbishop Lori said in his statement on Thursday: “I pledge to conduct a thorough investigation in search of the truth into the troubling allegations against Bishop Bransfield and to work closely with the clergy, religious and lay leaders of the diocese until the appointment of a new bishop.”