From the Philadelphia Inquirer - the saga continues.In hopes of salvaging his career, suspended Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. yesterday asked a special church court convened in Philadelphia to reverse its recent sentence removing him from holy orders.
Defrocking a priest or bishop is "the ecclesiastical equivalent of the death penalty," Bennison's attorney, James A. Pabarue, told the nine judges. Their sentence, he said, was "unduly harsh and unsupported by the evidence."
In June, following a four-day trial here, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop unanimously found Bennison, head of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, guilty of failing to intervene in his brother John's sexual abuse of a teenage girl more than 30 years ago in a California parish where Bennison was rector.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/34383709.html
1 comment:
I love Philly and I (being a liberal) was a Bennison supporter but I'm sorry, what he did was wrong. A child was damaged for life. No matter what we do, my experience (and I have a lot in this area) has taught me sexual abuse scars people for life. Mr. Bennison, IMHO they should have put you in a cell for many many years.
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