8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (4)
#7467398 at 2019-12-09 22:37:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9550:Rolling in Popcorn Shift!! Edition
'They looked the other way': Sexual abuse claim dismissed by church foreshadowed years of allegations against Catholic bishop
Michael J. Bransfield was just a couple of years into his tenure as West Virginia's bishop in 2007 when one of his former students called a church sexual abuse hotline. Decades earlier, at a Catholic high school, Bransfield had repeatedly summoned him from class, escorted him to a private room and fondled his buttocks and genitals, the caller said.
The former student said he was a freshman when the unwanted touching began.
It was a stark warning about a cleric who allegedly went on in the next decade to grope and sexually harass seminarians and young priests in West Virginia.
The former student's allegation, first reported to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where Bransfield taught, was eventually referred to the highest levels of the U.S. Catholic Church and the Vatican, as well as to the police, according to the findings of a recent church investigation obtained by The Washington Post.
But no action was taken against Bransfield - and the church's own investigators now say the allegation may warrant further examination.
The former student, speaking to reporters for the first time, told The Post that church officials might have prevented Bransfield's alleged wrongdoing in the years since if they had taken his claim more seriously.
"They looked the other way," he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he has not told his family about his experience. "More people got victimized."
Bransfield had close ties to two high-ranking clerics in Philadelphia who had responsibility for assessing sexual abuse claims at the time, a Post examination found. The cardinal in Philadelphia and one of his top aides received thousands of dollars in cash gifts from Bransfield before or after he was absolved of the hotline allegation in a process that was never made public, according to internal financial documents.
The Post has previously reported that Bransfield gave $350,000 in cash gifts, using church money, to clerics in the United States and at the Vatican over more than a decade. This is the first reported example of Bransfield giving money to a cleric involved in ruling on a sexual abuse claim against him before his retirement.
Bransfield stepped down as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in September 2018, as church officials announced an investigation into allegations of sexual and financial wrongdoing spanning his 13-year tenure.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/they-looked-the-other-way-sexual-abuse-claim-dismissed-by-church-foreshadowed-years-of-allegations-against-catholic-bishop/2019/11/29/874c118e-0659-11ea-a5e2-fccc16fa3576_story.html
#6681231 at 2019-06-06 00:07:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8544: Shills Still Crazy After All These Years Edition
Catholic church has a secret oil money fund in West Virginia - and one bishop is using it to pay people off
A shocking report Wednesday revealed that the Catholic Church is using a secret fund of oil money in West Virginia to help pay off cardinals and young priests one bishop mistreated.
According to the Washington Post, Bishop Michael J. Bransfield wrote checks for more than a decade under his personal account, only to be reimbursed by the West Virginia diocese. The alleged hush money totaled $350,000, with one gift as large as $15,000.
In total, 11 powerful clerics scored checks that were ultimately edited out of a final report at the request of Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who oversaw the investigation. Lori was also one of the names who got a payout and whose name was removed.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/catholic-church-has-a-secret-oil-money-fund-in-west-virginia-and-one-bishop-is-using-it-to-pay-people-off/
#6680038 at 2019-06-05 21:29:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8542 D-Day Incoming
The former leader of the Catholic Church in West Virginia spent millions on himself and sent expensive gifts to clergy members who accused him of harassment, according to church records obtained by The Washington Post.
Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who was ousted for alleged sexual harassment and financial abuses, gave cash gifts totaling $350,000 to members who accused him, as well as more than a dozen cardinals in the U.S. and at the Vatican.
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The West Virginia diocese reimbursed him for those gifts by boosting his compensation to cover the value, the records obtained by the Post show.
As a tax-exempt nonprofit, the diocese is required to use its money only for charitable purposes.
The gifts, one as large as $15,000, were detailed in a draft of the confidential report to the Vatican. William Lori of Baltimore edited the names of 11 powerful clerics who received checks out of the final report.
Lori's name was among those cut. He received a total of $10,500, the draft shows.
Lori told the Post on Wednesday that he is returning money he received from Bransfield and asking that it be donated to Catholic charities, "in light of what I have come to learn of Bishop Bransfield's handling of diocesan finances."
The five lay investigators who handled Bransfield's case determined that the cash gifts were part of a broader pattern of abuse of power.
"Bishop Bransfield adopted an extravagant and lavish lifestyle that was in stark contrast to the faithful he served and was for his own personal benefit," they wrote in the final report, per the Post.
Bransfield also spent $2.4 million in church money on travel, much of it personal, which included flying in chartered jets and staying in luxury hotels.
Bransfield and several subordinates also spent an average of nearly $1,000 a month on alcohol, the report shows.
The former bishop disputed the allegations in an interview with the Post but declined to go into detail because attorneys had advised him not to comment.
"Everybody's trying to destroy my reputation," Bransfield told the outlet by phone without elaborating. "These people are terrible to me."
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Wednesday called on the diocese to release its investigative report into Bransfield's alleged misconduct.
"While we appreciate the fact that our investigation and lawsuit is causing the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese to disclose new improprieties about Bishop Bransfield, we believe it is imperative that the Diocese immediately disclose its investigative report about the Bishop," he said in a statement.
Morrisey filed a lawsuit against the diocese and Bransfield in March.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/447167-ousted-wv-bishop-spent-millions-on-himself-sent-gifts-to-clergy-members
#5785386 at 2019-03-20 04:59:26 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7400: MUELLER > DECLAS > OIG > TRUTH > JUSTICE Edition
West Virginia Attorney General Sues Catholic Diocese
The West Virginia attorney general filed a civil suit Tuesday against the Wheeling-Charleston Catholic Diocese and former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, alleging they knowingly hired pedophiles. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, claimed the diocese knowingly retained pedophiles and also failed to conduct thorough background checks on school and camp employees and to warn parents about the potential dangers to their children.
Morrisey's lawsuit is the culmination of an investigation of the diocese that he began in September 2018. "Parents who pay and entrust the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese and its schools to educate and care for their children deserve full transparency," Morrisey said in a statement. "Our investigation reveals a serious need for the Diocese to enact policy changes that will better protect children, just as this lawsuit demonstrates our resolve to pursue every avenue to effectuate change as no one is above the law."
The suit alleges Bransfield and the diocese violated West Virginia consumer protection laws by failing to warn parents that confessed pedophiles like Father Patrick Condron had direct access to their children. The diocese reportedly sent Condron to rehabilitative treatment after he confessed to sexually abusing a student at St. Joseph Preparatory Seminary High School in Vienna, West Virginia. Afterward the diocese assigned him to Wheeling Catholic Elementary School from 1998 to 2001. The lawsuit also alleges the diocese hired Victor Frobas, who was later convicted of and imprisoned for child sexual abuse, despite knowing that he had been credibly accused of abuse in the past; failed to conduct a background check on Ronald Cooper, who was convicted of statutory rape and robbery, before employing him as a school teacher; and hired another priest who admitted to having been accused of sexual abuse.
"Today is a sad day, but the Attorney General still believes there are so many priests and deacons in the Catholic church - who are good men - who will support this effort so we can really seek meaningful changes in how the church handles sexual abuse," Morrisey said. The diocese announced on March 11 it completed a preliminary investigation into allegations against Bransfield of abuse cover-up and that it restricted Bransfield from ministerial duties while the Holy See reviewed the completed investigation. Morrisey urged the diocese to release its findings to the public.
https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/19/west-virginia-ag-sues-diocese/