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	Jury: Bishop Did Not Commit Fraud Associated Press, carried in Observer-Reporter October 26, 2008 http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/StoryAP/10-26-Episcopal-Bishop NORRISTOWN - An Episcopal bishop did not commit fraud in the process that led to the defrocking of a priest in his Pennsylvania diocese, a jury found. The Rev. David Moyer had alleged in a civil lawsuit that Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. fraudulently removed him from the priesthood in 2002. He asked for unspecified damages for loss of employment and mental suffering. But the Montgomery County jury found no fraud. If it had - and if appeals courts sustained the verdict - the case would have opened a traditionally closed door in U.S. law by allowing clergy in religious institutions to sue their superiors over personnel matters. Friday's decision appeared to shock Moyer, who shook his head slightly and then gazed down at the table. He declined comment after the verdict. At the center of the case was Moyer's claim that Bennison threatened to defrock him if he was not allowed to make pastoral visits to Moyer's parish in Rosemont, outside Philadelphia. Moyer, a conservative priest, was openly critical of the bishop's liberal views. Moyer contended that Bennison had said his removal from the priesthood would take place with a church trial. When Moyer continued to bar Bennison, the bishop declared that Moyer had "abandoned communion" with the Episcopal Church by refusing to recognize Bennison's authority. He then defrocked Moyer with no church trial. Bennison said he was sad that his differences with Moyer had come to a trial "since it further estranged the parish from the diocese." The Episcopal Church suspended Bennison, 64, as diocesan bishop a year ago after concluding that he once concealed his brother's sexual abuse of a minor girl. In July, a special church court found him guilty of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," and this month it sentenced him to be stripped of his status as priest and bishop. He is appealing that verdict and sentence in church court.
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