Gag order on former Bishop Bennison

Wednesday, 10th June 2009
By George Conger

A gag order has been issued against the former Bishop of Pennsylvania forbidding him to make public evidence he believes will exonerate him from charges of conspiracy to cover up sexual abuse.

On April 17, attorneys for the Rt Rev Charles E Bennison, Jr, filed a motion with the Episcopal Church’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop asking that it set aside its guilty verdict. The court found that the bishop, when he was a parish rector in California, had committed of two counts of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy for conspiring to cover up the 1973 affair between his brother John Bennison, his parish youth minister, and a 14-year-old member of the congregation.

In 2006, John Bennison was deposed from the ordained ministry, and on June 26, 2008 the court held Bishop Bennison was guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy and recommended that he be defrocked. Bishop Bennison appealed the finding and remains suspended from office pending the case’s final disposition. the rest