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	Abuse Victim Says She Never Sought Pa. Bishop's Removal Associated Press, carried in York Daily Record June 10, 2008 http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_9539760 PHILADELPHIA—A woman who was abused by a priest as a teenager testified Tuesday that she never sought the removal of an Episcopal bishop accused of concealing the abuse. The testimony came on the second day of a church trial for Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. He is accused of concealing the sexual abuse by his brother, then a lay minister at a California church where Bennison was rector. "I wanted Charles Bennison to acknowledge his failure to protect me," the victim said during an emotional second day of testimony that brought several people in the gallery to tears. "I haven't wanted him removed from his job," said the woman, now 50. "I just wanted his acknowledgment of what happened and his role in it." Bennison, 64, was formally "inhibited" by the diocese in November and ordered to "cease all episcopal, ministerial and canonical acts." A nine-person panel of bishops, priests and church members hearing testimony this week is slated to announce a verdict within 30 days. If Bennison is found guilty, he could be reprimanded, suspended, or ousted from the church; if the body finds him not guilty, the complaint would be dismissed and Bennison would resume his duties. A church indictment, called a presentment, charges that Bennison "failed to take obvious, essential steps to investigate his brother's actions, protect the girl from further abuse, and find out whether other children were in danger." The presentment also charges that Bennison continued to "fail in his duties" by knowing about the abuse but not stopping the 1974 ordination of his brother, John Bennison, who resigned from the priesthood in 2006. Charles Bennison's attorneys said the church did not have any guidelines in place for reporting sexual abuse in the 1970s and that Bennison handled the situation in the best way he knew how. He confronted his brother, who denied any wrongdoing, and decided not to tell the victim's family or pursue an investigation. The victim testified Tuesday that Charles Bennison has never apologized, asked how she was doing or offered to help her heal emotionally. "I felt entirely abandoned by my church and my rector," she said. The AP typically does not identify victims of sexual abuse. Bennison was chosen in 1998 to head the Pennsylvania diocese, which has 53,000 members in Philadelphia and four suburban counties. At the time of the abuse, he was rector of St. Mark's Church in Upland, Calif., in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and his brother was a married lay minister there. The Rev. James Trimble, co-chair of the search committee in 1996 that chose Bennison as leader of the Pennsylvania diocese, testified that the bishop failed in his obligation to disclose information about his brother's actions. "Had we known about this, we would have investigated because it's a serious allegation," he said. Countering a key assertion of Bennison's attorneys, a clinical psychologist testifying for the Episcopal Church said that well-understood protocols—if not specific written guidelines—existed in the 1970s about dealing with allegations of clergy sex abuse of a child. "The issue of needing to respond is not new," said Gary Schoener, a psychologist in Minnesota who treats victims and perpetrators of sex abuse. Even 35 years ago, he said, it was widely understood that the "common sense" response to a child sex abuse allegation was to intervene immediately, start an investigation, get the suspected abuser away from children, provide aid for the child and get the victim's family involved. Under cross examination by defense attorney Carolyn Bates Kelly, Schoener said that seminary workshops and training sessions in the 1970s revolved around issues like adultery, not sex abuse.
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