Michael Joseph Bransfield

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Bransfield's Episcopal Coat of Arms

Michael Joseph Bransfield (born September 8, 1943 in Philadelphia , USA ) is an American clergyman and emeritus Roman Catholic Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston .

Life

Michael Joseph Bransfield received the sacrament of ordination for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 15, 1971 through the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal John Joseph Krol .

On December 9, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston. The Archbishop of Baltimore , William Henry Cardinal Keeler , donated him episcopal ordination on February 22, 2005 ; Co- consecrators were the Archbishop of Washington , Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick , and the Bishop Emeritus of Wheeling-Charleston, Bernard W. Schmitt .

On September 13, 2018, Pope Francis accepted his age-related resignation. At the same time he appointed William Edward Lori , Archbishop of Baltimore , as Apostolic Administrator . Lori should also investigate adult sexual harassment allegations and financial irregularities in the diocese.

The diocese has been in the headlines for a long time because under Bishop Bransfield a beneficiary network of church abusers is said to have emerged. The state attorney general in the US state of West Virginia has indicted the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston with knowingly employing pedophile offenders. Bransfield himself is now also accused of having sexually molested, assaulted and abused young people and adult men during his tenure. He himself denied the accusations in the press.

Michael Joseph Bransfield was suspended soon after his resignation and is banned from performing priestly or episcopal services. The preliminary investigations carried out by Edward Lori with the help of a non-clerical committee were completed in spring 2019 and were sent to the Vatican, which is responsible for deciding how to proceed according to canon law. In the meantime, another man had filed a lawsuit who was alleged to have been sexually assaulted by the bishop as secretary in 2014.

Particularly explosive was the revelation by the investigators, according to which Bransfield had sent considerable monetary gifts totaling 350,000 US dollars to other US clergymen, including high dignitaries, archbishops and cardinals from all ecclesiastical politics , without further explanation and often for no apparent reason To store. Among the beneficiaries were Archbishop Lori himself, the former nuncio in the USA, Carlo Maria Viganò , and important church figures such as Donald Wuerl , Timothy Dolan , Kevin Farrell and Raymond Burke . Most of those affected stated that they had kept the money in the opinion that it was a matter of private donations out of generosity or gratitude for minor favors such as unpaid church service representations or lectures. The recipients, who partially repaid the money, did not want to have known that Bransfield had the money gifts reimbursed from the diocese budget. According to media reports, among the recipients were also priests who had been sexually molested by Bransfield. Much of the money came from oil wells in Texas owned by the diocese.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Wheeling-Charleston (USA) e nomina dell'Amministratore Apostolico sede vacante della medesima diocesi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , September 13, 2018, accessed September 13, 2018 (Italian).
  2. ^ Pope Francis Appoints Archbishop William Lori Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. , Communication from the Archdiocese of Baltimore of September 13, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018 (quote: "to conduct an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of adults against Bishop Bransfield").
  3. a b c Another lawsuit filed against US Bishop Bransfield. In: Kathpress , April 9, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  4. a b Was the bishop molesting his own secretary? In: Katholisch.de , April 9, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  5. ^ Gifts of money: Serious allegations against the US bishop. In: orf.at , June 7, 2019, accessed on July 20, 2019.
  6. Chico Harlan, Alice Crites, Andrew Ba Tran: Vatican cardinal, other priests to return cash gifts from ousted West Virginia bishop Michael Bransfield. In: The Washington Post , June 8, 2019, accessed the same day.
  7. US Cardinal Burke justifies gifts of money from the bishop. In: Katholisch.de , July 3, 2019, accessed on July 5, 2019.
  8. ^ Report: Embezzlement by the US bishop in the Vatican known for a long time. In: Katholisch.de , July 5, 2019, accessed on the same day.
predecessor Office successor
Bernard W. Schmitt Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston
2004–2018
Mark Edward Brennan