Thursday, April 19, 2012

Bishops Bransfield Delivers the Goods to Benedict XVI



Vatican Radio 4/19/2012:



“Each year the wish list gets longer and longer..its' really a wonderful opportunity for the Pope and he responds throughout the world! He doesn't restrict it" says Bishop Michael Bransfield of Charleston-Wheeling, West Virginia, President of the US charitable organisation the Papal Foundation. 

They are the lay Catholic men and women from across the US who each year gift the Holy Father a 'wish list', in short the funds to carry out or sponsor charitable works that are particularly dear to him. On Saturday the Foundation members - who are known as Stewards of St. Peter - will meet with the Holy Father and present him a donation of over 8 million dollars to fund projects throughout the world.

Bishop Bransfield who is accompanying the Stewards on their annual pilgrimage to the See of St. Peter, says they “see this as a vocation, they see this as their ability to help the Holy Father to do things that otherwise he simply wouldn’t be able to do”...



Q: Quite a big difference in the case of the Papal Foundation, how did it all begin?
A: “Early in the 1980’s JPII had a lot of charities that he was not able to fund and a lot of concerns in Easter Europe and throughout the world. So Cardinals and Archbishops who were his friends…Cardinal Krol and Cardinal McCarrick got together and set up a foundation, it started in Philadelphia but immediately spread throughout our country because the Archbishops and Cardinals backed them up and brought in members”. 

Q So how does it work? 
A: “They put together this organisation and asked these people, who really are from all over the States, to give a million dollars each that would stay in the United States and the money that came from that, the income and different grants would come to the Holy Father for the poor of the world and for his charities or works that he wanted done. [The Pope] sends a list over and in November we meet in Washington and its reviewed by the grants committee and then again by the board and they approve what they can fund and what they can do for the Holy Father because the wish list gets longer and longer”. 

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Bishop Bransfield of W.Va. Joins Bishop Finn of K.C. in Exclusive American Bishops Abuse Club



Monsignor Quirk, a sought after material witness in the Philly Monsignor Lynn Child Abuse Trial, works for Bishop Brainsfield.
  
What a strange coincidence? 

A West Virginia Judge has refused to honor a Pennsylvania subpoena for Quirk hiding out in Bransfield’s West Virgina Bishopric bailiwick.

Another strange coincidence.  How do you spell conspiracy? (crossing a state line)

TODAY: Bishop Bransfield denies sexual abuse accusations


The witness in the Philadelphia trial told the jury he saw Bransfield bring several boys to a Scranton, Pa., farm owned by former diocese priest Stanley Gana more than 30 years ago.

The man said Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with one of the boys.

The witness told the jury Gana raped him for years and that Gana and Bransfield were close friends. He said Gana once sexually abused him during a visit to Bransfield's New Jersey beach house.

Another witness testified that Bransfield had a lewd conversation with him.

Details of the testimony were circulated in various media reports Wednesday.

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Material Witness in Lynn Child Abuse Trial Msgr. Quirk under Protection of Bishop Bransfield in W. Va Diocese – Sanctuary!

You can't touch me. I am in West Virginia.
Sanctuary!!!

Out of state witness Monsignor Michael Quirk is not available per West Virginia judge who does not think that Philly Child Abuse trial has anything to do with West Virginia.  Duh!


According to Blessington, an unnamed West Virginia judge has balked at honoring the district attorney's "material-witness petition" for Msgr. Michael Quirk, one of three church judges who heard the 2008 canonical trial of Brennan on child sex-abuse charges.

Brennan is a defendant in the Philadelphia criminal trial for the rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996, an assault he has denied.

On trial with Brennan is Msgr. William J. Lynn, who as secretary for clergy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004 was responsible for investigating allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests. Lynn is the first church official to be criminally charged with enabling or covering up the allegations.

The prosecution in the trial, now in its fourth week, maintains that the Philadelphia Catholic Church had a long-standing pattern of trying to avoid scandal at the expense of the priests' past or future victims.

As part of the trial, Blessington has said he wants to present testimony from Quirk about Brennan's testimony during the 2008 canonical trial.

Although the canonical trial was in Philadelphia, Quirk is assigned to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., where he is judicial vicar and assistant to Bishop Michael J. Bransfield.

A week ago, prosecutors approached Sarmina at the end of a trial session and asked for her to write asking the West Virginia judge to honor the petition from a Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court.
Although state court subpoenas usually have no effect on other state's courts, they are often honored as a matter of courtesy among judges.

The West Virginia judge has apparently decided that Quirk's testimony would not rise to the level of being a "material witness" and has not honored the petition.
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