How Sex Scandal Bishop Blew $2m in Church Funds on Luxury Vacations, Drugs, Jet Charters and Booze - Along with $200,000 on Daily Delivery of Flowers to His Office
Daily Mail
One way to get around it was to gift members, also known as 'grossing up'. 'His Excellency would like to receive a check in the amount of $500.00 prepared according to the usual gross-up method,' Judicial Vicar Rev. Kevin Quirk wrote in a according to a 2016 email to Bransfield about Christophe Pierre. It's reported Bransfield collected $324,129 this way - including $61,000 for 87 purchases of patriotic items from Washington D.C. jewelry boutique, Ann Hand. The full amount was not disclosed, but the Archbishop William Lori - appointed by the Vatican after Bransfield resigned in September following sexual harassment allegations - said in a Wednesday report that he himself had received a total of $7,500 in financial gifts from Bransfield. At the time he was a bishop in Baltimore and he told the Post he received and additional $3,000 for travel reimbursements and stipends related to two Masses he attended in West Virginia. Lori got $5,000 just after he was appointed in Baltimore. Lori said he has returned all of the money to the diocese 'in light of what I have come to learn of Bishop Bransfield's handling of diocesan finances,' and has asked that it be donated to Catholic Charities. The largest single gift amount cost $15,000, according to the report which states 565 checks were written to members from Bransfield's personal account which he was later reimbursed for. The reasons for all the gifts are not specifically stated in the report but during this time Bransfield was promoted including becoming president of the Papal Foundation which donates to charity on the pope's behalf. His own nephew - Rev. Sean Bransfield, vice chancellor of the Philadelphia Archdiocese - got $9,175 and his cousin Monsignor Brian Bransfield, general-secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, received $1,350.
Both said the gifts seemed like 'a typical gift from a family member'. Bransfield started his role in 2005 and by 2006 he had given $4,800 to the late Boston Cardinal Bernard Law who had been ousted due to his part in a sexual abuse cover-up. The late Cardinal Edmund Szoka received $500 in 2006 after retiring as a Vatican administrator. A spokesperson for now-retired Washington archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl said he 'received honoraria for speaking invitations in the Diocese of Wheeling and other commemorative events, as well as modest gifts to mark personal celebrations, such as an ordination anniversary'. Wuerl got $10,000 two weeks after being appointed Archdiocese of Washington and walked in front of Bransfield at a Rome ceremony. The Vatican Supreme Court's Cardinal Raymond Burke and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan were among those who accepted gifts. Former Vatican ambassador to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano - who has called for more accountability in scandals of the Catholic church - received $6,000. Vigano told the Post he was told gifts were customary in the US and did not know Bransfield had been reimbursed. His predecessor Rev. Pietro Sambi, got $28,000 before he died in 2011. Vatican official Cardinal Kevin Farrell took two checks that summed up to $29,000 for renovations on his apartment in Rome but 'was not aware of the accusations against Bishop Bransfield for abuses and mismanagement of the financial funds of his diocese', a spokesperson said.
'Bransfield made expensive renovations to his private residences in Wheeling and Charleston, along with his intended retirement residence,' Lori said. 'Bishop Bransfield adopted an extravagant and lavish lifestyle that was in stark contrast to the faithful he served and was for his own personal benefit.' But the names of 11 clerics involved in the investigation launched by the Vatican last fall had been kept under wraps by Lori who said he found no evidence those members had accepted gifts with 'expectations for reciprocity'. Bransfield responded to The Post that he was unable to fly economy due to black problems and claimed his aides carried out the renovations. He claimed none of the accusations are true. 'Everybody’s trying to destroy my reputation,' Bransfield said. 'These people are terrible to me.' Theodore McCarrick - on the board of the Papal Foundation with Bransfield - was named as one of those who received gifts but refused to comment to the Post. Board members have been accused of ignoring or facilitating the extreme spending habits. Some received a total of $38,000 from Bransfield. A spokesperson for Wheeling-Charleston Diocese said decisions from other members of the church were 'impacted by the culture of fear of retaliation and retribution that the former bishop fostered'.
t was also claimed there was 'consistent pattern' of sexual innuendo and suggestive comments and actions toward subordinates, the head of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese said Wednesday. A team of investigators determined the sexual harassment accusations against Bransfield were credible, said Lori. He had been accused of slapping a clergy member on the bottom, making someone sit on his lap, kissing one's neck, and warning people not to 'get fat'. Bransfield was also alleged to have exposed himself, given alcohol to an underage person, and ran his hands over a seminarian's genitals. The report found no conclusive evidence that Bransfield engaged in any sexual misconduct involving minors, Lori said. No one responded to a telephone message left at a phone number listed for Bransfield. He also had been implicated in a 2012 case involving Philadelphia priests accused of sexual abuse, but he denied abusing anyone in that case.
'I am deeply pained by and sorry for the harm that the former bishop caused to those he was charged with shepherding,' Lori said in a letter released by the diocese. 'There is no excuse, nor adequate explanation, that will satisfy the troubling question of how his behavior was allowed to continue for as long as it did without the accountability that we must require of those who have been entrusted with so much.' The team of investigators comprised five lay investigators, both Catholic and non-Catholic, Lori said. The completed investigation has been sent to the Holy See for final judgment. Catholic Church officials in March imposed ministerial restrictions on Bransfield. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit in March accusing the diocese and Bransfield of knowingly employing pedophiles and failing to conduct adequate background checks on camp and school workers. In a statement Wednesday, Morrisey called for the release of the diocese's full investigation. Last month the diocese released the names of additional priests who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse, bringing to 40 the number of accused priests or deacons who served in West Virginia.
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