Michael J. Bransfield
Michael Joseph Bransfield is a disgraced former American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia from 2005 to 2018. Bransfield was previously rector of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 2004.
After Bransfield retired as diocesan bishop in 2018, a church investigation led by Archbishop William E. Lori and five lay experts examined "multiple allegations of sexual harassment of adults and financial improprieties" leveled against Bransfield. The report found that the accusations of sexual harassment were credible and detailed extravagant spending by Bransfield. In July 2019, Pope Francis banned Bransfield from residing in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and ordered that he was not to “preside or to participate anywhere in any public celebration of the Liturgy," thus barring him from engaging in public ministry within the Catholic Church.
Early life, education, and ordination
Bransfield was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Catholic schools in Philadelphia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a master's degree in divinity from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. Bransfield was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal John Krol on May 15, 1971.Career as a priest
Bransfield received a master's in philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.. He was later a teacher and chaplain at Lansdale Catholic High School, and chair of its religion department. In 1987, Pope John Paul II named Bransfield as an honorary prelate.Bransfield was named assistant director and director of liturgy, director of finance, and director at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. When the Shrine was named a Basilica in 1990, Bransfield was appointed its first rector and served in this position until 2004.
Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston
On December 9, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Bransfield the Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia. He received episcopal consecration on February 22, 2005, from Cardinal William Henry Keeler, with Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick and Bishop Bernard William Schmitt as co-consecrators, at St. Joseph's Cathedral.As a bishop, Bransfield was elected president of The Papal Foundation, a Catholic nonprofit organization that distributes funds to charitable organization. Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he served a term as treasurer, and as a member of the Conference's Communications Committee and the National Collections Committee, and co-authored a set of diocesan financial guidelines approved by the Conference in 2002.
Bransfield was a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, and of the trustees of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He holds membership in the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
Accusations of sexual abuse and harassment
On April 2012, the Associated Press reported that Bransfield had been accused of sexual abuse of a boy in the Philadelphia archdiocese. Accusations against Bransfield, who had been ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, were raised in testimony by a witness at the trial of two Philadelphia priests, one charged with attempted rape and the other with failing to report sexual abuse. Bransfield was not charged with a crime, and denied ever sexually abusing anyone.Resignation
When he turned 75 in September 2018, Bransfield submitted his resignation as required by canon law. His resignation was immediately accepted by Pope Francis, who named Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore as apostolic administrator of the diocese, and directed Lori to conduct an investigation into allegations that Bransfield sexually harassed adults.Investigations and aftermath
The investigation into Bransfield was prompted by a detailed whistleblowing letter that Monsignor Kevin Quirk—a canon lawyer and top aide to Bransfield—wrote to Lori in August 2018. Quirk's letter alleged that Bransfield had engaged in drug and alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, and financial impropriety.At the time of Bransfield's resignation, he was described as an associate of former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who had resigned from the College of Cardinals several months earlier over accusations that he had abused children and seminarians, allegations which McCarrick denied.
Findings of investigation into Bransfield's conduct
Findings related to sexual harassment
A subsequent 60-page report by five lay investigators overseen by Lori was submitted to the Vatican in 2019. A copy of the final report was obtained by the Washington Post, which reported on the findings in June of that year. Lori released a letter to the priests and laity of the diocese on the same day that the Post article was published, summarizing the conclusions of the investigation. Lori reported that the investigative team had determined that the allegations that Bransfield had sexually harassed adults were "credible" and stated: "The team uncovered a consistent pattern of sexual innuendo, and overt suggestive comments and actions toward those over whom the former bishop exercised authority," specifically seminarians and young priests. According to a diocesan spokesman, the investigation "found that no criminal activity was undertaken", and the report was not submitted to law enforcement. Lori stated that "the investigation found no conclusive evidence of sexual misconduct with minors by the former bishop during its investigation.".The Washington Post reported the opposite conclusion, stating that the report reads: “We did not find conclusive evidence that Bishop Bransfield committed sexual misconduct with minors; however, there is significant reason for concern that this occurred,” the report stated, citing “several troubling incidents” involving altar servers.As summarized in the Washington Post, the report gave the accounts of nine men in the diocese who accused Bransfield "of touching or groping them, kissing or exposing himself to them or of commenting on their bodies." The report stated that the diocese's judicial vicar had attempted to ensure that altar servers were not left alone with Bransfield. The report did not name the men who complained about Bransfield's conduct; Lori stated that the names and underlying details were withheld "due to privacy concerns and at the request of those who alleged harassment by Bishop Bransfield." The report also stated that similar complaints were raised against Bransfield when he was a Catholic high school teacher and rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from 1990 to 2005; that the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese's vicar for clergy reported that at least six clerical assistants to Bransfield "were broken by" their experiences working under him; and that as bishop, Bransfield abused alcohol and prescription drugs, including oxycodone, and that this "likely contributed to his harassing and abusive behavior." In interview with investigators, Bransfield denied engaging in sexual misconduct.
Findings related to financial impropriety
The 2019 investigation into Bransfield also found that over a ten-year period, Bransfield gave a total of $350,000 in cash gifts to other Catholic clerics, "including young priests he is accused of mistreating and more than a dozen cardinals in the United States and at the Vatican." Bransfield wrote the checks from his personal account, and the diocese reimbursed him for the value of the gifts. The gifts came in the form of at least 565 checks made out to the clerics by name.The Lori report also found that during his 13-year tenure as bishop, Bransfield spent $2.4 million in diocesan funds on travel, including a substantial amount on personal travel. The report also found that Bransfield, along with a number of subordinates, spent an average of almost $1,000 per month on alcohol; that fresh flowers were delivered daily to the chancery while Bransfield was present, at a total cost of $182,000; and that the diocese "paid $4.6 million to renovate Bransfield's church residence after a fire damaged a single bathroom." Bransfield also used church funds for a personal chef and chauffeur. The report found that the diocese financial board was "extremely passive" and lacked adequate financial controls, with "an almost complete absence of any meaningful review of financial decisions." The investigators concluded that "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." Bransfield denies the findings of the report, but provided no details. In a July 2019 interview, Bransfield argued that his financial decisions as bishop were justified and approved by diocesan financial officials.
Early warnings of financial impropriety
Beginning in 2012, multiple parishioners in Bransfield's diocese made complaints to church authorities in the U.S. and Vatican that Bransfield was engaged in financial abuses, but these complaints were not acted upon. Lori; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, then the papal nuncio to the United States; Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, then the leader of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican; and Archbishop Peter Bryan Wells, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State, all received these complaints. Viganò, Burke, Wells, and Lori were also among the many recipients of cash gifts from Bransfield during his tenure. Between 2005 and 2018 Bransfield had paid $350,000 to clergy in the U.S. and in the Vatican in what an aide described as an effort to "purchase influence". In July 2019, after the Washington Post reported on the early warnings, "Wells, Burke and Lori said the gifts did not influence how they responded to parishioners' complaints," while "Viganò said he did not recall receiving complaints and did not give Bransfield favorable treatment" and said that he had donated the funds to charity shortly after the gift was made.Recommendations of the investigative team
The report of the investigative team "recommended Bransfield be stripped of powers as bishop, removed from ministry and forced to pay restitution" and also recommended that Bransfield's three top aides be removed from office.Church disciplinary action and aftermath
In March 2019, following the delivery of the investigators' report, Lori removed Bransfield from "any priestly or episcopal ministry either within the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston or within the Archdiocese of Baltimore" pending review of the report by the Holy See. In June 2019, Bransfield's three former top aides resigned.In July 2019, Pope Francis imposed restrictions on Bransfield by banning him from living in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and forbidding him from presiding over or participating "in any public celebration of the Liturgy." Though Bransfield was not laicized, these measures permanently excluded him from engaging in any form of public ministry in the Catholic church. Francis also directed Bransfield's eventual successor as bishop to determine how Bransfield should be directed to "make personal amends" for his actions. Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Mark E. Brennan was appointed to succeed Bransfield as Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston in late July 2019, and was installed the next month.
In November 2019, Bishop Brennan ordered Bransfield to pay restitution to the diocese in the amount of $792,638 and to issue an apology "for the severe emotional and spiritual harm his actions caused" to his victims and to the diocese. Brennan also revoked certain retirement benefits of Bransfield and barred him from being buried in the diocesan cemetery. The directive is believed to be a rare, perhaps unprecedented, example of a bishop being ordered to pay restitution. The survivors' group SNAP criticized the measures as insufficient because they suggested "that Bransfield alone should make reparations"; the group called for consequences for Church officials who concealed, or failed to address, Bransfield's conduct.
The diocese said it would reimburse the costs of mental health assistance for "known victims" of Bransfield. Lori, as apostolic administrator, also directed the creation of a "third-party reporting system" for allegations against bishops of the diocese.
In June 2019, after details of the report became public, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called for the report to be publicly released, and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called for a law enforcement investigation.
Civil lawsuits
In March 2019, a former personal altar boy for Bransfield sued the Wheeling-Charleston Catholic Diocese, alleging that Bransfield had sexually harassed him for years and sexually assaulted him in 2014. The suit was settled on confidential terms in August 2019.Also in March 2019 Attorney General Morrisey filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the State of West Virginia against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and Bransfield, alleging violations of West Virginia consumer protection laws. The complaint filed by the state specifically alleges that the diocese advertised itself as a safe place for children while "knowingly employed pedophiles and failed to conduct adequate background checks" on workers in Catholic schools and camps. The lawsuit was groundbreaking because it named a diocese as a defendant rather than individual priests, and because it sought to make use of consumer-protection law to obtain discovery of church records.
In September 2019, a second sex-abuse lawsuit was filed in state court in Ohio County, West Virginia against Bransfield by a former seminarian who accused Bransfield of sexual harassment.