Apparently, Bishop Bransfield’s, of Wheeling WVA, name got mentioned in the Monsignor Lynn trial in Philly and having the bishop as the center of accusations of sexual misconduct in conjunction with another miscreant friend priest (guilt by association?).
Bransfield crossed the state line of Pennsylvania in 1980 when he went to work at the USCCB parish church, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. The Pennsylvania statute of limitation on the accusations against Bransfield froze in 1980.
Don’t hold your breath on justice though. It is Montgomery County where White, Relublican and Catholic are synonyms. The original accusations from 2007 against Bransfield got lost in e-mails in the County Prosecutor’s office there just like similar charges of evil got lost in the Sandusky Paterno Pedo State Cover Up. Democrats may not be less perverted than Republicans but the Republicans can sure cover it up better in Pennsylvania.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120708_Review_of_2007_allegation_a_W_Va__bishop_had_fondled_a_Montco_student.html?c=r
Bransfield has been the leader of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese since 2005 and an elected treasurer for the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. Before that, he spent more than two decades working at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington and rose to become its rector, a prominent post within church circles.A nephew, Sean Bransfield, is a vice chancellor for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Another relative, Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, is a ranking officer at the U.S. bishops' conference.
Michael Bransfield had never been publicly accused of misconduct until his name emerged during the trial for Msgr. William J. Lynn and the Rev. James J. Brennan.Two men testified that they talked to or saw Bransfield during years they were serially raped and molested by one of his friends and seminary classmates, Stanley Gana.One of the witnesses said Gana regularly put him on the phone with Bransfield when Gana was serially abusing him in the 1980s. During one phone call, he said, Bransfield told him: "I'm going to have Stanley put you on a train and come down and see me sometime."
The second witness reported seeing Bransfield driving a carload of adolescent boys near a farm Gana owned in Northeast Pennsylvania.
"They're his fair-haired boys," Gana allegedly told the teen as Bransfield drove away. "The one in the front seat he is having sex with."
Prosecutors in the case also took aim at Bransfield after a priest from his diocese unexpectedly resisted a subpoena to testify at the trial. In the sidebar conference, Blessington told the judge that he believed Bransfield was behind the delay.
Statement by: Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWe are grateful that Philly prosecutors are investigating Bransfield's allegations of sexually abusing a child.
In April, during sworn testimony in the Philadelphia hierarchy clergy sex abuse trial which (Msgr Lynn was found guilty of enabling and covering up sex crimes against kids) West Virginia's Bishop Michael Bransfield was accused of sexual abuse of a child, during his priesthood in the Philly Archdiocese.
After Bransfield's angry letter of denial, it would be irresponsible and reckless for this testimony to be forgotten or ignored. We anticipate that Bransfield would like for these accusations to just go away, but it is well known that child predators rarely have only one victim.
Sexual predators are often powerful and well-loved. They can also work their way up the church hierarchy ladder of authority and become bishops.
So we urge anyone who has knowledge or may have been harmed by Bransfield to contact Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who is investigating this case. Her contact info here (ph: 610-278-3090) http://da.montcopa.org/da/site/default.asp
Or contact the police, whether it be in the Philly Archdiocese or the Wheeling-Charleston diocese.
Keep in mind your silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others
Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-0790 cell, snapclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine
(312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com), Judy Jones, 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)