Pope OKs investigation into U.S. bishop over sex harassment claims

A delegation of U.S. Catholic cardinals and bishops met Thursday with Pope Francis as a new bombshell dropped in the Catholic Church’s long-running sex-abuse and cover-up scandal.

The pope accepted the resignation of a West Virginia bishop, Michael Bransfield, and at the same time authorized a fellow bishop to investigate allegations that Bransfield sexually harassed adults, officials said.

Bransfield had been implicated in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia sex abuse case involving priests, but he denied ever abusing anyone and claimed vindication years ago. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last week.

The Vatican said Francis accepted his resignation Thursday, announcing the decision at the exact moment that the U.S. delegation was arriving at the Apostolic Palace for an emergency meeting with the pope concerning another scandal involving a former U.S. cardinal.

Francis appointed Baltimore Bishop William Lori to take over Bransfield’s Wheeling-Charleston diocese temporarily. Lori said in a statement that Francis had also instructed him to “conduct an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of adults against Bishop Bransfield.”

Lori set up a hotline for potential victims to call, and vowed to conduct a thorough investigation.

The revelation was the latest twist in an incredible turn of events in the U.S. that began with the June 20 announcement that one of the most prestigious U.S. cardinals, Washington’s Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of groping a teen-age altar boy in the 1970s.

Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation found the allegation credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they too had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults.