VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop Thursday and authorized an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults.
The resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield was announced just as the four-member U.S. delegation of church leaders was sitting down with Francis in his private study in the Apostolic Palace. Among the four was Bransfield's cousin, Monsignor Brian Bransfield, secretary-general of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bishop Bransfield had been investigated in an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in a Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone, and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last week.
The Vatican said Francis accepted his resignation Thursday and appointed Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to temporarily take over Bransfield's Wheeling-Charleston diocese. Lori said in a statement that Francis had also instructed him to "conduct an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of adults against Bishop Bransfield."
No details of the allegations were revealed and his diocese said it had "no idea" where Bransfield was after the Vatican ordered him to live outside the diocese.
Lori set up a hotline for potential victims to call, said the Vatican had instructed him to make the investigation public, and vowed to conduct a thorough study into what he said were "troubling" claims against Bransfield, who was a major fundraiser for the Vatican via the Pennsylvania-based Papal Foundation.
The revelation was the latest twist in events in the U.S. church that began with the June 20 announcement that one of the most prestigious U.S. cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of groping a teenage altar boy in the 1970s.
Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation found the allegation credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults.
The McCarrick affair -- coupled with revelations in a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses -- has fueled anger among the rank-and-file faithful who had trusted church leaders to overhaul themselves after the abuse scandal first broke out in Boston in 2002.
Anger has also been directed at Francis and the Vatican and has fueled conservative criticism of Francis' pontificate.
The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, had requested the papal audience last month after revelations that McCarrick had risen through church ranks even though the allegations of sexual misconduct were known in U.S. and Vatican circles.
DiNardo requested a full-fledged Vatican investigation into McCarrick, and said he also wanted answers to allegations that a string of Vatican officials knew of McCarrick's misdeeds since 2000, but turned a blind eye.
A statement issued by DiNardo after the papal audience made no mention of his request for a Vatican investigation. It said that the Americans briefed the pope on the "laceration" that abuse has caused and that "we look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps."
The Vatican hasn't responded to allegations by its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, that Francis effectively rehabilitated McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI over allegations McCarrick would routinely invite seminarians to his beach house and into his bed.
Separately, a Roman Catholic bishop in Indiana was cleared on Thursday of suspicions of misconduct involving a former jail inmate he counseled while serving as a Pennsylvania priest in the 1990s.
The prosecutor in Harrisburg said Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades never engaged in a criminal or otherwise improper relationship with the man.
District Attorney Fran Chardo said "what turned out to be an unfounded report did unnecessary harm."
The Indiana diocese said the findings showed why the credibility of accusations needs to be determined before someone's reputation is impugned.
Information for this article was contributed by Claudia Lauer, John Raby and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/14/2018