(LifeSiteNews) ― A former bishop who resigned upon credible allegations of sexual and financial misconduct has died at the age of 82.
Bishop Michael Bransfield had been accused of sexual abuse, harassment, abuse cover-up, and exorbitant use of Church funds on a “luxurious” lifestyle during his lifetime. He served as the president of the Board of Trustees for deceased ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s Papal Foundation, a charity that collects money from wealthy American Catholics to give to charitable projects of interest to the pope.
“As it is the tradition in our Church to pray for the dead as well as for the living, we pray for the repose of his soul, asking God’s mercy upon him. His funeral and burial will not take place in West Virginia, but we invite all the faithful to pray at this time for his family, friends, and caregivers,” stated the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston of West Virginia.
Due to accusations of misconduct, Bransfield, who was the bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston diocese from 2005 to 2018, was told by his successor that he would be denied a burial in any diocesan cemetery upon his death.
Following an investigation, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore found credible evidence to support allegations from nine men of Bransfield’s sexual abuse of adults and sexual harassment of seminarians and priests and misappropriation of Church funds. However, this report was not submitted to law enforcement.
While the report stated that there was not “conclusive evidence” that Bransfield abused minors, it stated, according to The Washington Post, that “there is significant reason for concern that this occurred.” It cited “several troubling incidents” involving altar servers.
Earlier concerns were raised by his behavior and expenditures while he worked in Philadelphia at a Catholic high school, and in Washington, D.C., where he headed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from 1990 to 2005. When seminarians and young priests complained to Church authorities, their concerns were ignored. They were instructed to “make your boundaries clear,” according to the report, or “told that they had no choice but to join Bransfield in such activities as sleepovers at his residence and on trips,” according to The Washington Post.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey had filed a lawsuit against the diocese, claiming it should have informed people about credible sexual allegations against clergy.
Prosecutors added accusations that the diocese and Bransfield “knowingly hired pedophiles and did not conduct background checks on school and summer camp employees.”
One lawsuit against Bransfield was submitted by a former seminarian who alleged that the former bishop sexually assaulted him while drunk. The claim relates that the plaintiff, J.E., had a lifelong dream of being a priest but was “overcome with depression, and suffering a severe crisis of faith,” left the seminary and then the Church.
“At least six of Bransfield’s clerical assistants in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston were broken by the experience,” vicar for clergy Fr. Anthony Cincinnati told investigators regarding his harassment.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò told Italian journalist Marco Tosatti that Bransfield is “a perfect example” of the “homosexual mafia” that many clerics have said is operating in the Catholic Church.
“It is important to note that, before being appointed bishop, he was rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. and was president of the Foundation Council of the Papal Foundation, both linked to McCarrick and Cardinal (Donald) Wuerl,” Viganò said.
Bransfield was ordered to reimburse the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston for his financial improprieties, and did so with a sum of $441,000. Phil Lawler has pointed out that this was about “half of the figure that Bishop [Mark] Brennan had proposed as a suitable compensation” and did “not include the lavish personal expenses he racked up at diocesan expense.”