MORGANTOWN (WV)
The Dominion Post
June 13, 2019
By David Beard
A group called Lay Catholic Voices for Change has submitted a letter to the Rev. William Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, expressing its outrage over the sex abuse and financial mismanagement scandals currently troubling the diocese.
The 44 signatories from 19 churches claim their right to participate in crafting solutions to the problems and spell out five areas with specific recommendations for change. They seek Lori’s response to the letter by June 28.
They have also publicly released the letter in the form of an online petition at change.org and are encouraging fellow Catholics from the diocese to sign on in support.
They say, “We have associated ourselves in response to the sexual abuse scandal, which we see as linked to a broad crisis of political and financial corruption within our Diocese and throughout the Church, to the detriment of clergy and laypeople alike. … We are outraged that the scandal of clergy sex abuse in our Church has been prolonged and perpetuated by coverups in the DWC. We are also troubled and appalled by the coverup in our diocese of Bishop Bransfield’s outrageous spending.”
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