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	Del. Episcopal Bishop Facing Ouster Wins Appeal By Randall Chase KDKA August 5, 2010 http://kdka.com/wireapnewsfnpa/Episcopal.bishop.who.2.1844591.html An Episcopal bishop who was ordered to be defrocked for covering up his brother's child sexual abuse more than 30 years ago will resume his leadership of the Diocese of Pennsylvania after winning an appeal. Charles Bennison Jr., 66, was notified late Wednesday that the Episcopal Church Court of Appeals had reversed a lower church court's decision finding him guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. "I'm very gratified by the decision by the court," Bennison said Thursday, noting that he always thought the charges were without merit. "I'm relieved, my wife is relieved; it's been an agonizing time for us," added Bennison, who said he planned to return to his office on Aug. 16. The panel's unanimous decision is dated July 28, but the diocese's attorney, Michael Rehill, said it took time to obtain all the necessary signatures. Rehill said Bennison regained his powers as bishop as soon as the document was finalized. "His ecclesiastical authority has been restored," he said. Bennison was found guilty by a church panel in 2008 of failing to respond to and covering up a sexual relationship that his brother, John, began with a 14-year-old girl when Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Church in Upland, Calif., in the Diocese of Los Angeles. John Bennison was a fellow priest and youth group leader at the church and was married at the time. The appeals panel agreed that Charles Bennison was guilty of conduct unbecoming a clergy member because he failed to act after twice finding his brother and the girl alone behind closed doors, and after hearing a rumor that they may have been involved in an improper relationship. But the panel, which met in Wilmington in May to hear Bennison's appeal, said it had no choice but to reverse the lower court decision because too much time had lapsed before charges were brought against him in 2007. While the lower court relied on an exception to the statute of limitations for cases involving sexual abuse, the appeals panel noted that Charles Bennison himself was never accused of immorality or sexual misconduct. "The language of the canons could not be clearer: the sexual abuse exception to the statute of limitations applies only to those circumstances where the respondent has personally acted directly against the victim," the panel said. The appeals panel reversed the lower court's finding that Bennison covered up his brother's misconduct. It noted that Bennison did not have actual knowledge of the sexual relationship until after it had ended, and that high-ranking church officials learned about it more than 30 years ago from the girl's parents and John Bennison's ex-wife. "The record establishes that each party to whom the church contends the appellant should have disclosed his knowledge already had that knowledge," the panel said. "The failure to disclose that which is already known, under the circumstances of this case, does not constitute conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy." Charles Bennison has said he learned of his brother's actions from his former sister-in-law only in late 1977, after the relationship with the girl had ended and about five months before the victim, then 19 and in college, told her parents. John Bennison gave up the priesthood in 1977 after his sex with the girl came to light, but he was reinstated two years later. He remained in the priesthood despite a subsequent 1993 church investigation led by Bishop William Swing, head of the Diocese of California, but he resigned in 2006 after Swing and other officials were pressured by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, which began protesting outside John Bennison's church in Clayton, Calif. SNAP issued a statement decrying the appeal panel's ruling. "This is just what shrewd and corrupt church officials do — relentlessly fighting, exploiting every possible legal maneuver, to cling to their precious power, even when their wrongdoing has been so clearly proven," the statement read. Charles Bennison claimed he was being railroaded by high-ranking church officials trying to cover up their own involvement in his brother's case and working with factions within the Pennsylvania diocese who have been trying to oust him because of differences over theology and the handling of church finances. Bennison said Thursday that he has developed new perspectives on himself and the church since his ordeal began, and that he hopes he is "a changed person." He suggested he will be focused less on the earthly components of the church going forward and more on its spiritual realm. "I am less anxious about the church's future than I was when I first became bishop.... I think I have shared in Christ's crucifixion," he said.
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