WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter
Nov. 11, 2019
By Heidi Schlumpf
After last week’s announcement that retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield had been formally disinvited from the Nov. 11-13 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, representatives of dioceses where other bishops have resigned or been removed for sexual misconduct or cover-up say they are unlikely to initiate similar action.
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Three dioceses and archdioceses contacted by NCR — Milwaukee, Cheyenne and St. Paul-Minneapolis — indicated that the prelates in question already do not attend the bishops’ twice-yearly meetings.
The only bishop convicted of the crime of failure to report a priest suspected of abuse to civil authorities, however, continues to show up.
Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn reportedly was in the room this past June when the bishops passed the new “Protocol Regarding Available Non-Penal Restrictions on Bishops,” under which Bransfield was disinvited.
Section 12 of that protocol allows the bishops’ conference president, in consultation with the administrative committee, to disinvite any retired bishop “who resigned or was removed from his office due to sexual abuse of minors, sexual misconduct with adults, or grave negligence in office, or who subsequent to his resignation was found to have so acted or failed to act.”
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