MORGANTOWN — Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Mark Brennan has released the final amends plan for former Bishop Michael Bransfield concerning Bransfield’s financial and sexual misconduct scandals. In addition, the diocese released a letter of apology from Bransfield.
Brennan announced the measures, agreed to by the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, in a Thursday letter to the faithful. The bishops fulfilled Pope Francis’ requirement that Bransfield “make personal amends for some of the harm he caused.”
Brennan said, “This decision comes after extensive input from me, as the representative of the Catholic people of the Diocese, and with consideration of governing factors in both civil and canon law.”
First, Bransfield was told to make a public apology to the people of the diocese and to apologize privately to some people who reported abuse and harassment. Bransfield’s letter was published on the diocese website along with Brennan’s announcement.
Brennan said the diocese is aware some people have received letter from Bransfield.
Second, Bransfield must pay and has paid the diocese $441,000 for unauthorized benefits received from diocesan resources. These money will be added to proceeds of the sale of his former residence for assistance to victims of abuse. Bransfield has already bought, at fair market value, the diocesan vehicle he has been using in retirement.
Third, Bransfield will receive $2,250 per month as his retirement stipend, adjusted for inflation. Brennan said this is the amount recommended by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for retired bishops. But no other benefits, such as for a secretary or travel, will be provided.
Brennan said, “This is in accord with the discretion that I have, as the current diocesan Bishop, according to the same USCCB guidelines, to reduce or eliminate additional benefits for a predecessor who did not retire in good standing.”
Bransfield’s stipend will be about one-third of the full package of $6,200 ordinarily given to a retired bishop, Brennan said.
Bransfield will continue to be covered by the health insurance plan for priests of the diocese, and the docese will pay what it terms his modest his long-term care insurance premium.
“I am grateful to Pope Francis and the Congregation for Bishops for accepting in large part the outline of the amends plan I presented to Bishop Bransfield in November, 2019,” Brennan said.
“That plan combined an insistence on restorative justice with a gesture of mercy, which is how God deals with all of us. I hope that the people of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston will see in the decision of the Congregation for Bishops a fair and reasonable resolution of this unseemly matter.”
Brennan continued, “This has been an ordeal for all of us. Now, I hope, we can move forward and not let the past distract us from the urgent work of faith that is so vital to the well-being of so many throughout this State who need the Church’s ministry.
“Faith in God,” Brennan said, “can help us heal the wounds we have suffered and give us strength to move ahead with the true mission of the Church: to bring Jesus Christ to the people he came to save and to work his wondrous power of renewal in them.”
Bransfield’s letter
Bransfield does not admit any wrongdoing in his four-paragraph apology letter. He apologizes for how his actions were perceived.
“I am writing to apologize for any scandal or wonderment caused by words or actions attributed to me” during his time in the diocese, he wrote in his letter dated Aug. 15.
He wrote that during he tenure he was reimbursed for expenses that have been called into question as excessive and was advised to pay them back. He has done so “even though I believed that such reimbursements to me were proper.”
He also wrote that there were allegations that some of his words and actions “caused certain priests and seminarians to feel sexually harassed. Although that was never my intent, if anything that I said or did caused others to feel that way, then I am profoundly sorry.”
He wrote that he hopes his letter “will help to achieve a kind of reconciliation” with the people of the diocese.
Original amends plan
The amends plan approved by the bishops is substantially reduced from Brennan’s November 2019 initial proposal.
Brennan called for a series of apologies: to Bransfield’s victims for “severe emotional and spritual harm”; the the diocese faithful for “grievous harm”; to diocese employees for a “culture of intimidation and retribution.”
Brennan recommended a stipend of $736 per month. The full amount the diocese determined that Bransfield misspent was $441,492; that apparently was rounded off. In addition, Brennan also proposed that Bransfield repay $351,146 to the diocese as moral restitution for his luxurious lifestyle.
So the $441,000 Bransfield repaid is only 56% of the total $792,638 proposed. Bransfield also was to pay $110,000 in taxes owed to the IRS; this was not addressed in the final plan.
Reactions
The Dominion Post contacted Lay Catholic Voice for Change, a statewide organization that was formed in response to the Bransfield scandal, for its thoughts on the plan and Bransfield’s letter.
A representative of LCVC’s media committee said they are still considering a full response but offered an initial reaction.
“The letter doesn’t meet the definition of apology,” the representative said. “He doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of what he did.”
Bransfield apologized for the scandal, the representative said. His apology should have been directed to the men he victimized and the people in the diocese from whom he stole money.
Regarding Bransfield’s $2,250 monthly stipend, the representative said, “Think of the number of people in West Virginia who’ve done nothing wrong and their retirement income is far less than that.”
Bransfield doesn’t recognize that his spending was unethical, the representative said. “He doesn’t seem to understand that was just wrong.”
An organization called SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – has regularly followed and commented on the Bransfield case and issued a statement regarding the amends plan and Bransfield’s letter.
SNAP said, “A true apology from Bransfield would not contain any equivocation or whines about his intent being mis-perceived, but a simple and straightforward acceptance of his wrongdoing. That is not what parishioners in West Virginia received from Bransfield.”
Regarding Bransfield’s sexual misconduct, SNAP said, “We are glad that Bransfield is being made to return the money he stole from parishioners to fund his lavish lifestyle, but this financial impropriety is the lesser of his alleged crimes. Ultimately, Bransfield has been accused of both sexually harassing seminarians and abusing young children.”
SNAP expresses its hope that the criminal justice system will pursue charges. “We do not believe that the amends plan laid out by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is close to real accountability.”
The Dominion Post has solicited comment from Lay Catholic Voice for Change, an organization that was formed in response to the Bransfield scandal, and is awaiting reply.
Tweet David Beard@dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
