Wednesday, March 13th, 2019
Stephan: Although I have been described on numerous occasions as a deeply spiritual person, I have never been a part of any religious community, nor had the slightest interest in becoming one. Perhaps that is why I find it so hard to imagine how one stays a communicant of a denomination such as Roman Catholicism that is so profoundly sexually dysfunctional.
As described in this article, yet another chapter of this dysfunctionality has opened, and already two bishops have been ensnared in the net and dismissed from their priestly duties. It is really quite amazing, and it never seems to end nor does there seem to be any fundamental thinking about the cause.
Bishop Michael Bransfield served as the highest-ranking Catholic official in West Virginia until his retirement in September. He was accused of sexual harassment and financial improprieties.
Credit; Dale Sparks/AP
Bishop Gordon Bennett was accused of sexually harassing a “young adult” in Jamaica in 2006.
Credit: Eric Castro
The archdiocese of Baltimore said on Monday that it had barred two bishops from performing priestly duties and referred their cases to the Vatican after an internal investigation into allegations that they had sexually harassed adults, including one claim that was dismissed by church investigators a decade ago.
The announcement shined a light on the alleged abuse of adults, an often overlooked corner of the Catholic Church abuse scandal, and drew parallels to the downfall of Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, who was expelled from the priesthood last month […]