BishopAccountability.org
	Pennsylvania: Bishop Defends Actions in Sexual Abuse Trial By Jerry Hames Episcopal Life June 12, 2008 http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_97774_ENG_HTM.htm On the third day of his ecclesiastical trial for conduct unbecoming a clergy person, Bishop Charles E. Bennison of the Diocese of Pennsylvania testified that he acted in a way he thought was sufficient 35 years ago when he realized that his brother, a 24-year-old deacon in the parish, might be engaged in sexual abuse with a teenage girl in the youth group. Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Upland, in the Diocese of Los Angeles at the time. Secrets kept over 30 years are emerging at the trial of the 62-year-old bishop being conducted at the Marriott hotel in downtown Philadelphia. The court has been told that beginning in 1973, John Bennison began making sexual advances to Martha Alexis, then 14. A sexual relationship between the two continued until Martha's first year of college. In his testimony June 11, Bennison said he had no seminary training in pastoral care or how to handle sexual abuse at either of the two seminaries he attended. He said he saw nothing inappropriate in the young teen's almost-daily relationship with a man 10 years her senior. He said he did not remember being approached by his senior warden and being told that Martha and John "were having an improper relationship" and did not remember walking in on them on two occasions in rooms in the church, seeing them flushed and their clothing disheveled. "I have no clear recollection who told me," he said, recounting how he first learned about the illicit relationship and said that contrary reports confused him. "It was an unfounded, unproven rumor I heard from somebody." But he said he was stunned and concerned, and immediately confronted John, who denied any impropriety. The court heard testimony June 10 that Bennison ordered his brother to leave the church then, but that John remained two more months until the end of summer and continued the abuse. Bennison said he did not remember that. He said he did not question Martha, her parents, John's wife, other young people or anyone else in the parish. "I spoke to no one else. I didn't want to embarrass her [Martha] or shame her. That would be a serious charge against a high school girl. They [the parishioners] would not have seen it as abuse. They would have seen it as immoral behavior." Sought no assistance He said he did not seek help elsewhere, either from his bishop or health care professionals. "If it was true, it was yet another affair. I didn't call the bishop [Robert Rusack] about all the affairs. I was fairly intimidated by Bishop Rusack. The attitude was it was your job as a priest to help the bishop, not to take him problems." Bennison admitted he was also concerned about his own future. "Any disturbance in the parish would reflect poorly on my leadership in the parish at that time." A letter he wrote in 1979 to Margaret "Maggie" Thompson, John's ex-wife, was introduced in which he asked her not to return to Upland, or St. Mark's Church. He said he sought to "soothe animosities which could cost me my job" and asked her not to call Martha. "Every time you phone Martha all the old wounds are opened. We need to move on," it said. Bennison said there was a secret in the parish and that he was trying to manage the secret. "Maggie was an irritant," he said. Earlier in the day, Bishop Harold Hopkins, former director of the Office of Pastoral Development for the Episcopal Church, testified that he held several conversations in 1992-93 with other bishops, including Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, after he was told of the abuse. He said he participated in a church-sponsored intervention in Minneapolis at which he, along with the victim and her mother; the Rev. Margo Maris, an abuse counselor; Bishop Robert Anderson of the Diocese of Minnesota; and Bishop William Swing of the Diocese of California, in whose diocese John Bennison was then a priest, attended. Hopkins said the woman and her mother wanted to tell their story, have some public statement in the congregations where the offences took place and wanted to see John Bennison removed as a priest. Hopkins said the presiding bishop's role was a pastoral one. "Bishop Swing was John Bennison's bishop and it was up to Swing to make decision," Hopkins said. "One of the things he told me was that this was not my business and I should get off his back, or words to that effect. And he was right." When asked why he described the meeting as "a disaster," he said it was because of Swing's response to Martha and her mother, June Alexis. "He got angry, he didn't offer any sympathy or regret, it turned into a confrontation and that was not the intent of the meeting." He said Swing did not remove John Bennison from the priesthood, even when he was asked to reconsider his decision. Hopkins told the court that he learned more about the abuse after the intervention. "I did not realize that Bishop Bennison had a number of opportunities to reach out to the young woman and did not take that opportunity," he said. As to accounts of the abuse which continued after Charles Bennison confronted his brother, Hopkins said, "I would have certainly assumed that it had stopped." The first witness for the defense on June 11, Margaret Thompson, described to the court how she learned of her husband's sexual relationship with their mutual friend, Martha, and how she came to learn of four other cases of infidelity in which her husband was involved. She divorced him in 1978 and has remarried. She admitted that she did not try to stop John Bennison's ordination to the priesthood by revealing what she knew, nor did she tell Martha's parents. "John manipulated us into thinking it was okay," she said. "He was persuasive, coercive and it was hard to counteract that. He had a constant litany of reasons why it was okay. He described it as 'God's special gift.'" The trail continues Thursday with Bennison resuming his testimony.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.