The disgraced Bishop Michael Bransfield, former head of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese, should apologize to his victims of sexual harassment, apologize to the diocese’s Catholic faithful, and repay nearly $800,000 to begin to make amends for his behavior, West Virginia’s new bishop has said.
Bishop Mark Brennan, head of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston since last year, said Bransfield’s actions have caused “a deep and abiding sense of betrayal” among the faithful of the diocese, clergy and diocesan employees.
“I am grateful for the patience of the good people of this diocese, despite their justified eagerness for some sense of justice and closure to this very tragic chapter of this local Church,” Brennan said in a November 26 letter to the Catholic faithful.
He said he has listened to Catholics’ “anger over the deeply troubling behavior and actions of the former bishop.” He has met with the diocese’s priests and victims of Bransfield’s sexual harassment.
Wheeling-Charleston is West Virginia’s only Roman Catholic diocese. About 1.8 million people live in the state, and about 110,000 of them are Catholic.
Bransfield headed the diocese from 2005-2018. Pope Francis accepted his resignation in September 2018, just after Bransfield turned 75, the mandatory age at which Catholic bishops must offer their resignation.
Pope Francis then ordered Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore to investigate allegations that Bransfield had sexually harassed adult males and misused diocesan finances during his time in West Virginia. Investigators established that the bishop had engaged in a pattern of sexual malfeasance and serious financial misconduct. CNA
