Diocese Lawsuit Must Go on

SNAP
September 3, 2019

https://www.weirtondailytimes.com/news/local-news/2019/09/morrisey-diocese-lawsuit-must-go-on/

CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Thursday that his office filed a response to the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston’s motion to dismiss a civil case calling for more transparency regarding abuse of children.

The Attorney General’s Office filed their response to the diocese’s motion to dismiss in Wood County Circuit Court Wednesday. A hearing on the motion to dismiss was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“The diocese’s motion to dismiss is yet another attempt to duck our calls for transparency,” Morrisey said in a statement Thursday. “Our response proves the strength of our case and why it should be decided in court. The decades-long pattern of cover-up and abuse must end and public trust must be restored.”

The original lawsuit, filed in March in Wood County, accuses the diocese of violating the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act by not disclosing incidents of sexual misconduct involving school and camp employees with minors to parents. The suit alleges that the diocese and former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield knowingly hired pedophiles and did not conduct background checks on employees for schools and camps operated by the diocese.

The diocese filed an amended motion to dismiss the civil suit in July, arguing that Morrisey has no authority to file a civil suit and accuses Morrisey of using the Consumer Credit and Protection Act to violate the separation of church and state.

In Wednesday’s filing, Assistant Attorney General Douglas Davis said the state is in no way trying to violate the diocese’s religious beliefs and practices but force it to comply with state consumer protection laws for the paid services the church provides, such as education.

“The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston can hire whomever it chooses, teach the tenets of its faith in its schools, and operate camps however it deems best,” Davis wrote.

“What it cannot do — and the only thing this lawsuit seeks to end — is refuse to deal honestly and fairly when it sells education and recreation services to the general public and competes with public and private schools and camps.”

Davis argues that the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act specifically applies to the diocese because it is engaging with consumers by offering services in exchange for money. By allegedly covering up instances of sexual abuse of children, Davis said, the diocese was engaging in deceptive practices by not informing consumers before engaging in a business transaction.

“These allegations are based on documents that the diocese itself provided to the state and describe conduct that the diocese purposely concealed from the public for 44 years,” Davis wrote. “This conduct includes concealing that the diocese knowingly employed abusive instructors in its schools and camps and failed to conduct comprehensive background checks it promised for all employees and volunteers to help ensure that the pattern of abuse would end. Like every other private school or camp in West Virginia, the diocese may not engage in unfair and deceptive conduct like this to sell its education and recreation services.”

Morrisey’s office started investigating the diocese in September 2018. After being subpoenaed, the diocese released a list of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. The office is still trying to get the diocese to release the full investigative report on former Bishop Bransfield. Only a preliminary report has been released.

Bransfield resigned last fall and was accused of sexual harassment and misuse of diocese funds to maintain a lavish lifestyle and buy gifts for officials in the Catholic Church. He has since been banned from the diocese by Pope Francis and banned from public ministry. Mark Brennan, the former auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, was appointed to replace Bransfield in August.

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@ newsandsentinel.com)