WEST VIRGINIA/PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on April 19, 2012
We’re disappointed that Bishop Bransfield is:
■apparently still not forcing his priest, Fr. Kevin Quirk, to testify at the trial in Philadelphia (as requested by prosecutors),
■has issued a written statement, instead of taking questions openly, about the child sex allegations against him,
■is apparently ignoring the allegation that he had a “lewd conversation” with a child,
■refusing to answer the allegation that he brought kids to the beach house he owns
■is only now making statements, seven years after it was first disclosed, about his alleged ownership of property with a child-molesting cleric, and
■continues to attack the judicial system and the judge and prosecutors in Philadelphia, especially since this is a trial that he has not attended. He apparently feels comfortable, from a distance, calling it a “circus.” But yesterday, he refused (through his lawyers) to respond to sworn testimony from that trial (he called the testimony “rumors.”)
■complains that his seminary is being “connected” to the priest abuse scandal (the truth is that dozens of former seminarians from there have been accused of abuse, including Fr. William Ayres, Fr. Edward Avery, Fr. Michael Bolesta, Fr. Robert Brennan, Fr. Gerard Chambers, Fr. John Close, Fr. James Coonan, Fr. Nicholas Cudemoo, Fr. John Delli Carpini, Fr.Philip Dowling, Fr. Peter Dunne, Fr. Thomas Durkin, Msgr. Francis Giliberti, and Fr. James McGuire. So no one’s “connecting” the seminary to abuse – many former seminarians have, in fact, abused.)
It’s important to remember that both accusers gave testimony yesterday under oath. Bransfield didn’t.
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