WV Catholics react to bishop abuse allegations - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

WV Catholics react to bishop abuse allegations

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  • Wednesday, May 22 2013 7:16 PM EDT2013-05-22 23:16:09 GMT
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Roman Catholics in West Virginia are reacting with disbelief and shock after a witness at a clergy-abuse trial in Philadelphia testified the leader of West Virginia's Catholics committed sexual abuse.

A man testified Wednesday that a priest raped him at a home owned by Bishop Michael Bransfield and that his accused abuser told him the bishop also sexually abused a boy. The testimony came at the trial of the Rev. James Brennan.

Monsignor Edward Sadie, rector of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Charleston, says he finds the allegations against Bransfield "impossible to believe."

Margery Webb of Charleston was shocked by the news as she arrived at a Morgantown church for Mass but said she hadn't heard anything about it.

The Diocese of Wheeling-Central declined comment.

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