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	Deposed Bishop Appeals Church Court's Decision By David O'Reilly Philadelphia Inquirer January 20, 2010 http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/82139207.html PHILADELPHIA (PA) -- Lawyers for the Rev. Charles E. Bennison Jr., deposed bishop of the five-county Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, have asked a church appeals panel to overturn a church court's 2008 decision to defrock him and remove him as diocesan bishop. That court, which convened in Philadelphia, ruled unanimously that Bennison had engaged in "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy" when he concealed his brother John's sexual abuse of a minor girl. John Bennison was serving as youth minister at his brother's California parish in the mid-1970s. Charles Bennison's lawyers are asking the seven-bishop appeals panel to reverse the guilty verdict and reinstate him as bishop. They assert that Bennison's alleged mishandling of his brother's behavior occurred too long ago to warrant a trial, and that removing him from both his office of bishop and the priesthood is excessive and harsh since he was not the abuser. The 55,000-member Diocese of Pennsylvania comprises Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, and Chester Counties.
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