McCarrick Secretly Gave Nearly $1 Million to Group Led by Cleric Accused of Sexual Misconduct

In the years before his removal from ministry, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick secretly gave nearly $1 million to a controversial group of Catholic missionaries and supported leniency for its founder after the Vatican punished him for sexual wrongdoing, internal church documents show. From 2004 to 2017, McCarrick sent the Institute of the Incarnate Word dozens of … Read more

From West Virginia to the Vatican: How Bishop Bransfield Secretly Sent Money from a Church Hospital to a Cardinal Farrell in Rome

The idea came to West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield while he was in Rome visiting an old friend, a powerful cardinal at the Vatican. Bransfield thought the cleric’s apartment was barren and lacked a comfortable room for watching television. After Bransfield returned to West Virginia, in May 2017, he sent the cardinal a $14,000 … Read more

Former W.Va. Bishop Michael Bransfield Under Investigation for Alleged Abuse of 9-Year-Old Girl on Church Trip

Police in Washington are investigating an allegation that former West Virginia bishop Michael J. Bransfield inappropriately touched a 9-year-old girl during a church trip to the nation’s capital in 2012, according to a subpoena and a person familiar with the matter. The subpoena, delivered Tuesday to church officials in West Virginia, seeks any abuse complaints … Read more