By Mary Frances Schjonberg
Episcopal Life
September 25, 2009
http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_115020_ENG_HTM.htm
[Episcopal News Service] An ecclesiastical trial court has refused to dismiss charges against Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison or grant him a new trial on those charges.
In a September 24 decision released to the public the next day, the church's Court for the Trial of a Bishop said that "the newly discovered evidence is not material to the evidence on which the court concluded that [Bennison] failed to respond appropriately once he knew that his brother had sexually abused a minor."
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| Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison |
Pennsylvania's diocesan standing committee issued a short statement September 25 outlining the decision and saying "we continue to keep in our prayers all who have been affected by this trial."
A spokesperson for James A.A. Pabarue, Bennison's attorney, said that he would not comment on the decision until September 28.
The bishop, 65, was tried and convicted by the church's Court for the Trial of a Bishop in 2008 on charges of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The court found that 35 years ago, as rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, Bennison failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, a 24-year-old seminary student (later deacon and priest) whom he had hired as youth minister, was "engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship" with a minor parishioner. The abuse lasted for more than three years from the time the minor was 14 years old.
Charles Bennison was found to have failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group as well as church authorities after he learned of his brother's behavior. The court said that he suppressed the information about his brother until 2006, when he disclosed publicly what he knew.
John Bennison was forced to renounce his orders in 2006 when accusations of the abuse became public.
In February 2009, the court issued its final judgment and sentence that Charles Bennison should be deposed from the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church for having engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.
Bennison, who has been inhibited or barred from exercising his ordained ministry by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori since October 2007 when he was first ordered to stand trial, appealed to the church's Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop in mid-March.
In April, before his appeal had been heard, the bishop's attorneys asked for a new trial or dismissal of the charges, known as the presentment, claiming to have letters that prove Bennison "was deceived and duped."
A news release issued by the bishop's attorneys at the time said that the letters prove John Bennison and the victim "did everything possible to hide their relationship from Charles."
In its September 24 decision, the court rejected Bennison's claim that "statements of affection" in 256 letters written between July 1974 and February 1994 show that the relationship of his brother and the victim did not constitute abuse. His attorneys said the statements were inconsistent with the victim's testimony during the trial that she hoped Charles Bennison would tell her parents about the relationship with his brother and, thus, end a situation she found degrading. The bishop's attorneys, characterizing the correspondence as "love letters," said they prove that the girl "enjoyed the relationship and that she sought to continue it."
However, the court said that "the objective and undisputed facts" establish that John Bennison's behavior with the girl was "both criminal and abusive."
The court noted that under California state law his conduct constituted statutory rape. In addition, the court said, the victim was a minor under the canons of the church throughout the abuse, Bennison was in a position of authority over her and sexual relations between a married seminarian or member of the clergy and a minor "are always utterly inappropriate, and are even worse when the minor is a member of the parish in which the member of the clergy is employed, and a member of the youth group for which he is responsible."
As to the bishop's conduct, the court's September 24 decision said that Bennison cannot now claim that he knew only of a rumor about the situation at the time because his previous sworn testimony shows that he knew the truth no later than June 1975 when the abuse was still going on. None of the victim's statements, the court said, can override that knowledge and the fact that Charles Bennison "failed to take any steps to prevent John Bennison from contacting the minor" after Charles had confronted his brother about the abuse.
"Whether or not the minor thought at the time that she wanted the relationship to continue is irrelevant to the existence of [Charles Bennison's] duty to protect the minor and his failure to fulfill that duty," the court said.
And, the court, said Bennison failed to give the victim or her family pastoral care during the time that the abuse was ongoing or after. He also failed to raise the issue years later when he provided pre-marital counseling to the victim, the court noted.
The court reiterated its earlier finding that Charles Bennison was obligated by the Book of Common Prayer because of his knowledge of the abuse to intervene with church authorities to prevent his brother from becoming a priest. "Worse, [Bennison] affirmatively represented that his brother was fit to be ordained at a time when he had doubts that his brother's manner of life was suitable to the ministry of a priest," the court noted.
None of the facts described, the court said, could be overcome by the victim's statements revealed in the letters Bennison included in his request for a new trial or dismissal of the charges.
In another ruling on September 24, the court refused a request by the Episcopal Church to seal Bennison's request for a new trial or dismissal and the document related to it. The church also asked that people involved with the case be prevented from revealing any of the documents. The documents were sealed from May 19 until now on an emergency basis.
However, the court said on September 24 that "the presumption of openness that pertains to these proceedings" cannot be overcome by a presumption that the victim would be further harmed by allowing the material to be public. In addition, people not subject to the court's jurisdiction already have the original documents, as well as "perhaps unknown copies," the court said.
It ruled that it will not disseminate any of the material and said it "admonishes and fervently prays that the parties and all persons in possession of the documents …will continue to extend the most sensitive pastoral concern to the minor in their decisions regarding any use or release of such documents."
"Having witnessed the minor's testimony at trial, and understanding the facts that gave rise to this case, the court recognizes that these proceedings have been extremely difficult for the minor," the court wrote. "The court regrets any additional pain that may result from further public examination of this chapter of her life."
The Court for the Trial of a Bishop consists of five bishops, two priests and two adult lay communicants: Bishop Andrew Smith of Connecticut (presiding judge); 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.
The Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop delayed its review of Bennison's March appeal of his conviction and sentence until the trial court ruled on Bennison's motion for a new trial or dismissal of the presentment. Canon IV.6 of the Episcopal Church's canons outlines the appeal process.
The Court of Review of the Trial of a Bishop consists of nine bishops, three elected by the House of Bishops at each regular meeting of General Convention. Current members are: North Carolina Bishop Michael Curry, East Carolina Bishop Clifton Daniel (presiding judge), Mississippi Bishop Duncan Gray, El Camino Real Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, West Tennessee Bishop Don Johnson, former Maine Bishop Chilton Knudsen, Western Louisiana Bishop Bruce MacPherson, Eastern Michigan Bishop Todd Ousley and Delaware Bishop Wayne Wright.
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