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Two Catholic priests linked to alleged financial irregularities and alleged sexual abuse of a bishop of West Virginia have rendered service to the world through their resignation from office in the diocese of West Virginia.
Do not let the door hit you when you leave. Or maybe do it.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
On Monday, the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston announced the resignations of Bishop Anthony Cincinnati and Kevin Quirk. A third priest, Frederick Annie, resigned in September, the statement said. The diocese did not give any reason for these moves.
"Archbishop Lori has made and continues to make a number of decisions and changes for the good of the local church, including for the sake of these priests," said Tim Bishop, wheeling diocese spokesman. -Charleston.
Mgr. Annie did not answer questions about his resignation, but in an e-mail statement on church responsibility, the church was faced with "a number of very serious issues." He added: "Church governance is limited primarily to the ranks of bishops it is up to them to deal with these difficult and complex situations. "
Mgr. Quirk did not return requests for comments. Mgr. Cincinnati asked Mr. Bishop questions.
Like Annie, Quirk and Cincinnati were close associates of the former disgraced bishop Michael J. Bransfield, accused of credible allegations of sexual misconduct and what looks very much like a misappropriation of diocesan funds.
For specific details on Bransfield's alleged acts, we turn to the Washington Post:
In the years leading up to his ousting for alleged sexual harassment and financial abuse, the leader of the West Virginia Catholic Church offered $ 350,000 in cash to his confreres, including young priests whom he is accused of to have mistreated and more than a dozen cardinals in the United States. States and the Vatican, according to church records obtained by the Washington Post.
[…]
The gifts came as a result of a succession of young male office workers complaining to church officials in West Virginia that Bransfield was sexually harassing them. Bransfield's behavior in Philadelphia, where he taught at a Catholic high school, and in the District of Columbia, where he was head of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception National Shrine from 1990 to 2005, raised concerns like.
[…]
During his 13 years as a bishop in West Virginia, one of the country's poorest states, Bransfield spent $ 2.4 million in church-based travel funds, one of which much personal, which included jet planes and luxury hotels, according to the report. . Bransfield and several of his subordinates spent an average of nearly $ 1,000 a month on alcohol, according to the report. The Diocese of West Virginia paid $ 4.6 million to renovate the Bransfield Church Residence after a fire damaged one bathroom. When Bransfield was at the Chancery, an administrative building, fresh flowers were delivered daily, at a cost of about $ 100 a day, or nearly $ 182,000 in total.
It seems to be as bad as it sounds. The Post describes in detail a long and complicated history of abuse and mismanagement, including a culture of "fear of retribution and retribution" that Bransfield personally promoted. And this is in addition to the allegations of sexual abuse against the disgraced bishop.
Almost as bad as Bransfield's sumptuous lifestyle and bliss, her three closest associates, Cincinnati, Quirck and Annie, seem to have done nothing to reduce her appetite. These men had the obligation and the ethical duty to denounce or, at least, to discourage criminal and deeply immoral behavior and they did nothing, according to a confidential report prepared for the Vatican by a team non-professional investigators.
After reviewing the private diocesan archives and confidential documents, the team of lay investigators recommended on February 13 that Quirk and Cincinnati be dismissed immediately (Annie had already resigned several months earlier). The investigators also recommended that Bransfield be "stripped of his power as bishop, removed from office and forced to pay an unspecified restitution," the paper notes.
As for the diocesan finance council, made up of church and lay representatives, he should have been watching Bransfield's extravagant lifestyle during his entire leadership of the West Virginia Catholic Church. Unfortunately, they were either totally in the dark or "extremely passive" about his reported financial abuse.
It is good that at least two other bad actors withdrew after being informed of their complicity and / or inaction during Bransfield's reign as bishop.
But how does he get to this point in the first place?
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