Bishop Michael Bransfield SNAP
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former Roman Catholic bishop in West Virginia has issued an apology two years after resigning amid allegations of sexual and financial misconduct, and the diocese said Thursday that he has repaid $441,000.
The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston on Thursday released a letter from former Bishop Michael Bransfield on its website.
“I am writing to apologize for any scandal or wonderment caused by words or actions attributed to me during my tenure,” Bransfield wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 15.
Bransfield said he was reimbursed during his time as bishop for “certain expenditures that have been called into question as excessive.” He said he has paid the money back to the diocese “even though I believed that such reimbursements to me were proper.”