BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
February 3, 2019
By Vincent DeGeorge
Pope Francis in late August appointed Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori to lead an investigation into the alleged “sexual harassment of adults” by former Catholic bishop Michael J. Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which comprises all of West Virginia. However, Archbishop Lori’s own record and actions seem to demonstrate a church “protectionism” that comes at the expense of transparency and accountability.
In 2002, when he was Bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., Archbishop Lori participated in writing the Dallas Charter, the U.S. Catholic Church’s most substantial accountability policy document on clerical sexual abuse which purports “zero tolerance.” However, here Archbishop Lori contributed to removing bishops from accountability under this document saying that the drafting committee “would limit it to priests and deacons, as the disciplining of bishops is beyond the purview of this document.”
Archbishop Lori also fought a multi-year legal battle to keep hidden Bridgeport clerical sex abuse records, some dating back as far as the 1960s, instead of readily complying with a state order to make them public. Archbishop Lori’s containment efforts finally ended in 2009 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the release of documents.
Last month, Archbishop Lori hosted all of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting, the most significant news from which was the conference’s inaction regarding abuse which resulted from newly materializing tension with the Vatican over how to respond to clerical sex abuse.
What’s more, Archbishop Lori, as interim administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, last week released a list of the names of West Virginia Catholic clergy who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors. Michael Bransfield was not on that list, despite having been accused of abusing a minor in 2012.
“The omission of Bishop Bransfield has us wondering what other claims were deemed by the diocese to not be ‘credible,’” Judy Jones, the Midwest regional leader for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), told the Charleston Gazette-Mail newspaper. She called for an independent investigation by law enforcement professionals — “given that we have seen church officials deem accusations not credible only to be proven horribly wrong later.”
Finally, Archbishop Lori has appointed former Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein to the team currently investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by former Bishop Bransfield. As a defense attorney in 2002, Mr. Bernstein represented former Catholic priest Rev. Michael J. Spillane, who was facing new claims of wrongdoing after having admitted a decade earlier to sexually abusing six Baltimore-area children. After that admission, Rev. Spillane continued to work with the church for 16 years in Washington, D.C., as executive director of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, a job he took, Mr. Bernstein told The Baltimore Sun, in part because it was administrative and away from children.
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