The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., Bishop of Pennsylvania, has expressed remorse for the emotional trauma inflicted on a teenage girl who was sexually abused by his brother at a California parish where Bishop Bennison served as the rector in the 1970s. But he maintains the charges against him “are not fair and are not true.”
A nine-member church court ruled unanimously in October that Bishop Bennison should be deposed from ministry in The Episcopal Church for failure to report his brother and to protect the girl.
“This was a terrible, monstrous sin,” Bishop Bennison told The Living Church. “I have always expressed remorse for my direct responsibility in this tragedy, especially hiring my brother as the youth director, inadequately supervising him and not thoroughly investigating the situation when it was first brought to my attention in 1976.”
Now he is trying to “save the Church” by keeping it from making a mistake? It seems the mistake was made when he was ordained a Deacon. As for the rest, “Bishop Bennison expressed frustration with the ecclesiastical court process, which he said made it virtually impossible for him to reach out to the victim’s family during the trial”. Isn’t it about 32 years late for expressing remorse? Suddenly when faced with the consequences of his complicity in this he is sorry. Seems pretty shallow. As for ecclesiastical courts, what about Bishop Duncan et al. They weren’t even given a chance in a court.
I know I am judgemental, but I try to give someone benefit of the doubt. But when this much is brought out, I have to think they are guilty. And this matter requires severe action. Of course I am surprised that TEC is doing it. It seems that this is a worse sin than that being committed on a continuing basis by VGR and the presideing “Bishop” in her heretical stances on Christ and the Bible. Maybe the best thing for TEC is to let him off and add that to the downfall of a once great Church
“Integrity of the Church?” WHAT “integrity?”
The temptation faced by religious leaders is expressed so well in [i] Crime and Punishement [/i].
Like Raskolnikov, we can come to believe that because we are somehow more enlightened, more “spiritual”, better intentioned, or whatever, that our bad acts (in Raskolnikov’s case, the axe murder of a disgusting slum lord) should get a pass because we are generally on a higher plane than everybody else (or because we do so much “good” that, on balance, we should be able to bend the rules now and then.)
We need to come to a place of honesty, humility and repentance… as long as we continue in word games and rationalizations, we are not to the place where God can make us new.
Raskolnikov — yep, you can’t sum up the situation better than that. I wonder what the leading scholar of Dostoevsky in the world today would have to say about that . . . i suspect it would be something a bit more constructive than “step aside and make it all go away,” but i wouldn’t even trust this fellow to quote the PB correctly.
[i] Slightly edited. [/i]
[blockquote]he maintains the charges against him “are not fair and are not true.â€[/blockquote]
and
[blockquote]I have always expressed remorse for my direct responsibility in this tragedy, especially hiring my brother as the youth director, inadequately supervising him and not thoroughly investigating the situation when it was first brought to my attention in 1976.â€[/blockquote]
So? Which is it? They seem mutually exclusive and that they are true.
And Cennydd, “Integrity” is the true power behind the throne that runs TEO. That is the only “Integrity” recognized by the organization.
Nikolaus, I’ve known all along that “Integrity” has been behind everything KJS has been doing. TEC has been infected for years.
Regarding the piece, I think it speaks volumes for Bennison’s prospects that the victim and her mother continue to attend the proceedings.
Bennison is upset that he could not express his regrets to the victim. Thirty years after the fact?????
The court trial process was unfair????
At least he got a court trial, right Fr. Moyer?