WASHINGTON (DC)
USA TODAY
July 20, 2019
By Doug Stanglin
Despite new disciplinary action by Pope Francis, West Virginia’s attorney general called on a Catholic diocese to “come clean” with what it knows about alleged allegations of sexual harassment and financial improprieties by a former bishop.
The pope on Friday banned former bishop Michael Bransfield from the public ministry or even living in the Wheeling-Charleston diocese based on the findings of a church investigation of “allegations of sexual harassment of adults and of financial improprieties.”
The pope’s declaration, which stopped short of defrocking Bransfield, was posted on the website of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. It also requires Bransfield, who resigned in December, to make amends “for some of the harm he caused.”
That probe had earlier found Bransfield guilty of sexual harassment of adults and misuse of church funds, spending them on dining, liquor, gifts, personal travel and luxury items.
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