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	Witnesses Say Bishop Negligent in Caring for Abuse Victim By Jerry Hames Episcopal Life June 11, 2008 http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_97745_ENG_HTM.htm [Episcopal News Service] Key witnesses for the prosecution testified during the second day of the ecclesiastical trial of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison that he failed to act responsibly 35 years ago when he was told that his 24-year-old brother, John Bennison, whom he had hired for his parish's youth ministry, was abusing a teenage girl in the youth group. Gary Schoener, a licensed psychologist and director of the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was called as an expert witness, testified that there were four principal steps a person was to take in the 70s when there was suspicion of sexual abuse. "They were first to intervene and stop the abuse. Then provide aid to the victim. Then look to the safety of others. Then try to get some help, assessment, for the offender," he said. "Back then, you wouldn't do anything with an [abused] kid without having a parent involved." He told the court that parents are key in providing help, or seeking psychological help. The court has heard that Bennison chose not to notify the parents, nor seek counsel from his bishop or other mental health professionals when he was told of the abuse. Schoener, who said he has worked with Episcopal groups since the 1980s and has received referrals from the director of the church's Office of Pastoral Development since the '90s, said the norm in the 1970s, when the abuse of a teen occurred, was to initiate an investigation. "That normally involves talking to young people, talking to parents and other adults who might have been around the youth group. You look for red flag behaviors, such as [someone] spending a lot of time alone with the person outside of normal group activities, doing favors for them or giving them gifts," he said. Court was told John Bennison, married and a deacon, picked up the teen in his Porsche most days after school and drove her to the church where sexual relations occurred three or four times a week. Under cross-examination, Schoener admitted that in the 50s, 60s and early 70s the church's focus and training had not been on the abuse of children, but on adultery. The defense has argued in its cross-examinations that Charles Bennison, then a 31-year-old rector, lacked the training, guidelines and protocol for the situation he faced, but handled it the way he thought was appropriate, avoiding scandal, respecting the girl's privacy and not informing her parents. However, Schoener said that a person was usually suspended "if there was a high level of suspicion." The teen, Martha Alexis, now 50, testified June 10 that John Bennison stayed at the church for two months in the summer of 1975 after Charles Bennison, in his sworn deposition, said that he told John to leave. During that time John continued to lead activities of the youth group, without monitors or chaperones present, Martha said. She said he also continued to have sexual relations with her afternoons and weekends during that time. "Nothing had changed," she said. "Was it as degrading," asked the prosecutor, referring to her testimony a day earlier. "It was more so," she replied. Failed pastoral obligations Later in the day, the court and visitors saw a videotaped deposition from Bishop David Richards, who was the first director of the church's Office of Pastoral Development in the 70s. He said Bennison failed to discharge his pastoral obligation by not terminating all contact between his brother and the girl, by not seeking counsel from the bishop and by not trying to delay John Bennison's ordination until he had sought therapy. He testified that Bennison engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy, for which he is charged, by failing to provide pastoral care, failing to disclose what he knew and withholding critical information. "He shut off granting aid to the people who needed it," Richards said. "Did he have responsibility to report it to the girl's parents?" he was asked by the attorney. "I believe that he did," Richards replied. "By keeping them in the dark he denied the parents an opportunity to assist their daughter." The Rev. James Trimble, who acted as chair of a diocesan search committee in 1995 when it sought a bishop to succeed Bishop Allen Bartlett, said Bennison, a candidate, should have divulged to the committee the information about his brother and his role in handling the abuse. If members had known, Trimble said, they would have investigated it. "I would have taken that seriously," he said. "It's a moral matter."
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