Friday, March 29, AD 2024 9:34am

PopeWatch: Bishop Bransfield

Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture demonstrates how the Lavender Mafia looks after its own:

 

This morning I had planned to write about the disgraceful excuse for an “apology” proffered by a former bishop. But I see that Christopher Altieri, writing in the Catholic Herald has beaten me to the punch:

Let’s be clear about two things: Bishop Michael J. Bransfield—improbably emeritus of the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston—did not apologize; nor did he get the “justice with a gesture of mercy” that his successor, Bishop Mark E. Brennan, suggested he might have got.

Bishop Bransfield, you will recall, was allowed to resign upon reaching the normal age limit, despite mounting evidence that he had used diocesan funds on personal expenses at a spectacular level and—as if that weren’t enough—established a pattern of sexual harassment of priests and seminarians under his authority. Bishop Brennan, his successor in the West Virginia diocese, had denounced Bransfield’s behavior and suggested appropriate disciplinary action. After months of delay the Vatican finally approved the disciplinary action—but, Altieri rightly observes, not before watering down Bishop Brennan’s suggestions.

(Did I mention that Bransfield is a protégé of the disgraced former cardinal, Theodore McCarrick? And did I mention that we are still waiting for the Vatican’s promised report on how McCarrick rose to power and influence? Is it unreasonable to speculate that the same people and powers that supported McCarrick’s rise through the hierarchy are still at work, softening the penalty on Bransfield?)

Bishop Bransfield’s “apology” is of the sort that could have been delivered with a one-finger gesture. (You know the genre: “I’m sorry if you’re so hypersensitive you were offended by what I said.”) Having been required to pay back a portion of what he took from the diocesan coffers, Bransfield pouts: “I have now done so even though I believed that such reimbursements to me were proper.” As for charges of sexual harassment—which a Vatican investigation found convincing—the disgraced bishop concedes only that “if anything that I said or did caused others to feel that way, then I am profoundly sorry.” Can you detect any hint of remorse in Bishop Bransfield’s letter? I can’t.

Under the current pontificate the Church is fashionably concerned about equality.  As long as clerical malefactors like Bransfield are treated with kid gloves, the cant about equality from the Vatican belongs in the round file.  They treat us like marks to be fleeced, and to be preached at while our pockets are picked by scoundrels whose lack of morals have to be seen to be believed.

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Don L
Don L
Friday, August 28, AD 2020 5:17am

“Equality” a concept where God gave the fox and the hare both, fluffy tails, big teeth, a nice warm fur coat, and four soft padded feet….but one eats the other.

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Friday, August 28, AD 2020 7:43am

It’s interesting that he had no money, but suddenly he had all of the money needed to pay all of the required repayments. $441,000 is a large amount to raise for someone who has no property and no means of income. My guess is the money is from part of the ill-gotten gained money pile from the still missing McCarrick or one of his slush fund buddies.

Ranger01
Ranger01
Friday, August 28, AD 2020 7:52am

Right. So, from what source did Bransfield get the funds to pay the reduced amount of $400k?
Well, we can guess…wealthy lavender ‘friends’ or he took it from the diocese over the years, or he did very well in the market.
Whatever. I shake my head…not one more dime.

CAM
CAM
Friday, August 28, AD 2020 11:04am

Bransfield’s “oil well” -” When she died in 1904, Sara Catherine Aloysia Tracy left the majority of her estate to the diocese, including a large tract of land in west Texas. Oil was discovered there decades later.” Too much temptation for this bishop.
From Patheos 06/09/2019: Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia is extremely wealthy thanks to oil revenues, which reportedly bring in an average of $15 million a year and funds an endowment valued at $230 million.
Sara, a teacher, was a very generous woman leaving the bulk of her estate to the church to do good, e.g. orphan homes, scholarships for seminarians, etc. Her multi-millionaire brother Edward Tracy of Lansingburgh, NY was described as being a “maltster”. Brewing is lucrative.

Art Deco
Friday, August 28, AD 2020 11:05am

McCarrick is 90 years old. The metropolitan at the time he first received an episcopal appointment was Cdl. Cooke (d. 1984). The metropolitan at the time he received his first appointment as an ordinary was Apb. Garety of Newark Abp. Garety had extraordinary longevity, however, his 104 years on Earth came to an end four years ago. The apostolic delegate at the time he was elevated to the episcopacy – Abp. Jadot, died 11 years ago. Three of the five men who have been prefect of the Congregation for Bishops during the years when he received one appointment after another are deceased. The only survivor is Giovanni Cardinal Re, who was the prefect when McCarrick received his red hat.

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