PHILADELPHIA _ Pope Francis has authorized an investigation of a West Virginia bishop, who was first accused of sexual misconduct during his tenure as a priest in Philadelphia, church officials said Thursday.
The announcement came as the pontiff accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael Joseph Bransfield as leader of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va.
Bransfield, a native of Philadelphia's Roxborough neighborhood, was first accused in Philadelphia in 2007 of molesting a minor and enabling the abuse of others _ charges he strenuously denied. The statement issued by church officials Thursday, however, described the focus of the new probe as "allegations of sexual harassment of adults."
They did not provide details of those accusations, note how recently they may have been lodged or specify whether they occurred during his tenure as bishop of the diocese of 117,000 Catholics in the Appalachian foothills.
But Archbishop William E. Lori, the current head of the Baltimore diocese who was appointed lead the probe, promised a "thorough investigation in search of the truth."
"My primary concern is for the care and support of the priests and the people of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston at this difficult time," he said in a statement. "I further pledge to conduct a thorough investigation in search of the truth into troubling allegations against Bishop Bransfield and to work closely with the clergy, religious and lay leaders of the diocese until the appointment of a new bishop."
News of Bransfield's ouster came at a dramatic moment just before a delegation of top American cardinals and bishops were scheduled to meet with Francis in Rome to address the widening sex abuse scandal within their ranks that kicked off earlier this year by the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in Washington, D.C.
Since then, a damning grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses has further fueled outrage among Catholics who have pointed to both developments as signs that the leaders of the church in America did not go far enough to reform themselves after the clergy sex abuse scandal first erupted in Boston in 2002.
Like McCarrick _ around whom rumors of sexual improprieties with seminarians had swirled for years before his resignation in July _ Bransfield, 75, has long been dogged by accusations and strenuously denied that he had ever done anything wrong.
Bransfield taught at Lansdale Catholic in the 1970s before moving to Washington in 1980 for a series of prominent assignments at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He was elevated to bishop of Wheeling in 2005.
He had distinguished himself as a top church fundraiser, serving as a past treasurer of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and later as president of the Bala Cynwyd-based Papal Foundation, one of the largest Catholic fundraising organizations in the nation.
A nephew, Sean Bransfield, is a vice chancellor for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Another relative, Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, is a ranking officer at the U.S. bishops' conference.
But in 2007 _ two years after he had been sent to West Virginia _ a former student at Lansdale Catholic accused Bransfield of molesting him in the late '70s and early '80s.
The archdiocese forwarded the complaint to Montgomery County prosecutors. But in a break from practice, the archdiocese conducted an internal investigation, bypassing a civilian review board, which was formed to conduct independent examinations of abuse claims. Instead, Cardinal Justin F. Rigali made the determination the complaint was unfounded after reviewing the reports of an investigator who interviewed Bransfield, his accuser and others.
Still, the former student's accusation did not become public until additional allegations against Bransfield emerged during the 2012 child endangerment trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn.
In that case, two witnesses alleged that Bransfield was aware of the abusive behavior of one of his fellow Philadelphia clergy members, an old seminary classmate _ the now-defrocked Rev. Stanley Gana.
The men testified that Gana had sexually assaulted them hundreds of times in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they were adolescents and he was assigned to parishes in Northeast Philadelphia.
They also told jurors that they believed Bransfield was a knowing accomplice, though they admitted they had no proof.
One accused Bransfield of letting Gana use a beach house he owned in Brigantine, N.J., for encounters with young boys.
The other testified that Gana would put him on the phone with Bransfield while he was being abused in Gana's rectory bedroom in the 1980s. He recalled during one phone call that Bransfield told him: "I'm going to have Stanley put you on a train and come down and see me sometime."
That same witness also reported seeing Bransfield driving a carload of adolescent boys near a farm Gana owned in Northeast Pennsylvania. "They're his fair-haired boys," Gana told the teen as Bransfield drove away. "The one in the front seat, he is having sex with."
Bransfield strenuously disputed that testimony in 2012 and his West Virginia diocese issued a statement alleging it had identified the boy the Philadelphia witness had seen in Bransfield's car and that the man had denied any abuse had occurred.
"To be now unfairly included in that group (of pedophile priests) and to hear the horrific allegations that are being made of me is unbelievable and shocking," the bishop said at the time. "I have never sexually abused anyone."
Still, how much those past allegations may have played into Francis' decision Thursday to accept Bransfield's resignation remains uncertain.
The announcement of the investigation into his conduct only mentioned claims of sexual harassment involving adults, and Bransfield's resignation letter was submitted under the Vatican requirement that bishops offer to retire once they turn 75.
In addition to handling the investigation into Bransfield, Lori, the Baltimore archbishop, was appointed to temporarily take over Bransfield's diocese until a permanent replacement can be named.
Tim Bishop, a spokesman for the Wheeling-Charleston diocese, said Thursday that Bransfield was unavailable for comment and that Francis had instructed him to live outside West Virginia pending the conclusion of the sexual harassment investigation.
It was also unclear to what extent Bransfield was discussed during Thursday's meeting in Rome between Francis and top leaders of the American church.
The papal conference came at the request of Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the current head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who had written to the pontiff seeking a full Vatican investigation into McCarrick's rise activities. DiNardo has also called for a plan to allow bishops to better police each other on their handling of clergy sex abuse complaints within their diocese.
DiNardo remained tight-lipped Thursday on the details of his discussion with Francis. In a statement, he thanked the pope for receiving the American delegation.
"We shared with Pope Francis our situation in the United States _ how the Body of Christ is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse," DiNardo said. "He listened very deeply from the heart. It was a lengthy, fruitful and good exchange. ... We look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps."
