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	Pennsylvania Bishop's Trial Opens with Recounting of Secrets By Jerry Hames Episcopal Life June 10, 2008 http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_97730_ENG_HTM.htm The ecclesiastical trial of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison opened June 9 with opening statements from both the prosecution and defense, followed by testimony from family members, including a woman who was sexually abused by the bishop's brother 35 years ago. The bishop is accused of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. He faces charges that, as rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he failed to respond properly after learning that John Bennison, a 24-year-old freshly-ordained deacon who he had hired as youth minister, had a continuing sexual relationship with a girl that began when she was 14. He is also accused of later suppressing that information when his brother, who having once renounced his orders, was reinstated as a priest. John Bennison was again forced to renounce his orders in 2006 when knowledge of the abuse, which stretched over more than three years, became public. Last November, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori inhibited Bennison from all ordained ministry pending a judgment from the ecclesiastical court. The trial is expected to continue until Friday, June 13, and the judges then have 30 days to announce their decision. A vote of two-thirds of the nine-judge panel is required to determine if there has been a canonical offense and, if so, to agree on the sentence which ranges from a admonition to deposition. Lawrence White, the church attorney acting as prosecutor for the Episcopal Church, said his evidence would show that the bishop failed to protect the minor from sexual exploitation, did not offer the girl any support, did not inform her parents about what had happened, nor did he alert the church. White said he would call witnesses to testify about clergy guidelines and the bishop's obligation to act. "The abuse by John Bennison continued for as long as he was employed at St. Mark's, many months after Charles knew about it," he said. Bennison's lawyer, James Pabarue, argued that with no training, no guidelines or protocol, his client, then a 31-year-old rector, handled the matter in a way he thought appropriate at that time. "He confronted his brother. John Bennison lied to him," he said. Pabarue said evidence would show that when the mother of the girl confronted John Bennison, he lied to her as well, denying there was any sexual impropriety between him and her daughter, then 17. "In the 1990s the church put into place training and helped clergy to deal with sexual abuse. Those tools were not available to Charles Bennison in the 70s and 80s. There were no guidelines available to him or bishops dealing with this situation," Pabarue said. In the courtroom, held in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, June Alexis, now 76, described her daughter in her early teens as "sweet, earnest and a high achiever who was very interested in matters of the spirit," and daughter Martha, now 50, described how she was exploited by John Bennison. "John Bennison groomed me over time to be his sexual toy," said Martha. "He was very exacting and specific in what he expected in technique. It was progressive over time. It eventually grew to include everything you could possibly imagine." She said John was persistent, initiating sexual encounters in the church's choir loft, Sunday School rooms, library and church office. She said Charles Bennison walked in on the couple twice during the summer of 1973 when she was 15 and John was 25. Both times they were in stages of undress. Both times, he seemed flustered and surprised, she said, his face colored bright red and he walked out. When the court attorney asked if Charles Bennison had ever spoken with her about the incidents, she said he never had. "I was hoping he would tell my parents. I felt guilty and ashamed. I was never able to stand up to John. He always had a way of minimizing anything I said. I thought he [Charles] might. I wanted help." She described how John Bennison persisted even after she tried to separate from him, following her to the UCLA campus when she became a college freshman. "The day after my parents dropped me off, he showed up at the dormitory. He was relentless," she said. "I felt John had stolen God from me. He told me what was going on was God's special wish for us." June Alexis said the bishop explained away his inaction by saying that it was Martha's responsibility to tell her parents if she wished. She said Bennison told her there was a "confidentiality agreement" in the youth group that nothing that occurred or was said in the youth group would be reported. It was later, Martha said, when she was a college sophomore, binge drinking on weekends, contemplating suicide and seeking help from a counselor did she finally tell her parents what had happened. Despite that, June Alexis said, they did not seek to charge John with statutory rape. "He [Charles] wanted to keep it quiet, but to be honest I wanted to keep it quiet too." She said her daughter was emotionally delicate and would not be able to stand the scrutiny she thought she would receive. The family related correspondence they sent to bishops in California and New York and meetings with some of them, all to no avail. What hurt most, they said was when they learned John Bennison was again an Episcopal priest. In 1993, a church-sponsored intervention in Minneapolis brought together John Bennison, Martha and her mother to seek closure. Charles Bennison did not attend. The Court for the Trial of a Bishop consists of five bishops, two priests and two adult lay communicants: Bishop Andrew Smith of Connecticut (Chair); Bishop Bruce Caldwell of Wyoming; Bishop Gordon Scruton of Western Massachusetts; Bishop George Wayne Smith of Missouri; Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis; the Rev. Marjorie Menaul, Diocese of Central Pennsylvania; the Rev. Karen Anita Brown Montagno, Diocese of Massachusetts; Maria Campbell, Birmingham, Alabama; and Jane R. Freeman, Akron, Ohio.
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