CHARLESTON (WV)
MetroNews
August 3, 2020
The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston (DWC) announced two third-party reporting systems for people to use about concerns and allegations of abuse and harassment in the diocese.
DWC officials announced on Monday the partnership with Navex Global to roll out a new version of its EthicsPoint platform, intended to report suspected financial, professional, and personal misconduct of a priest, deacon, religious, or lay employee of the diocese, parish, or Catholic school in West Virginia.
This comes more than a year after the Catholic Church investigation concluded disgraced former Bishop Michael Bransfield sexually harassed younger priests and misused millions of dollars in church money.
The diocese said in a release that on a national scale, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has its own third-party reporting system called the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service. This reporting system is established to receive reports of sexual abuse and interference with sexual abuse investigations on the part of bishops in the United States.
These reports will be relayed to a lay person in each diocese with experience in such matters, who will assist the Metropolitan Archbishop in the investigation, according to DWC. Where a report indicates a crime, such as the sexual abuse of a minor, it will also be reported to civil authorities by the website’s third-party vendor. The website to make such reports is reportbishopabuse.org.
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