Cardinal Dolan Must Come Clean about Gifts from Bishop Bransfield

By Zach Hiner
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
July 17, 2019

http://www.snapnetwork.org/cardinal_dolan_come_clean_gifts_bransfield_jul19

New York’s top Catholic official has kept silent now for over a month now regarding cash gifts he received from a now-disgraced colleague. We believe he owes his flock an apology and an explanation, and that he should return the money to its rightful owners. 

On June 5, the Washington Post revealed that the now-retired Charleston West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield used proceeds from an odd source – a little-known Texas oil field – to spend lavishly on himself and other high-ranking Catholic officials, including New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

Some of those church officials have pledged to return the money to the West Virginia diocese. Others claim they’ve donated it to charity. Cardinal Dolan, however, has remained silent and is apparently doing neither.

Dolan’s silence is particularly ironic because he is one of the loudest bishops when it comes to promising “openness” and “transparency.” And he’s one of the prelates who needs extra money the least.

According to the Baltimore Sun, “Bransfield disbursed gifts amounting to $350,000 in cash to powerful cardinals and bishops including Dolan, Archbishop Lori of Baltimore, Cardinal Raymond Burke of the Vatican; and disgraced Cardinals Bernard Law, who was forced to resign as Boston’s archbishop in 2002 for his role in covering up child abuse by priests there, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned last year amid allegations he sexually abused children and adults over decades.” That’s a group of men with pretty questionable records.

A close associate of Bransfield, a monsignor, wrote that “It is my own opinion that (Bransfield uses) monetary gifts. . .to higher ranking ecclesiastics and gifts to subordinates to purchase influence from the former and compliance or loyalty from the latter.”

It is time for Cardinal Dolan to disclose how much money he got and what Bransfield wanted in return, donate the money back to causes in West Virginia, and apologize for his secrecy.