Skip to content

‘They’re all out to destroy me,’ Philly native Bishop Michael Bransfield says of abuse lawsuit

The former bishop's personal secretary and altar server describes him as a “sexual predator,” prone to binge drinking orange liqueur and venting his lust on priests and seminarians in a new lawsuit

FILE - Michael J. Bransfield, a former Philadelphia priest and ex-bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia, pictured in 2005. In a new lawsuit, his former personal secretary claimed Bransfield sexually assaulted him in 2014. ( Dale Sparks / AP )
FILE - Michael J. Bransfield, a former Philadelphia priest and ex-bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia, pictured in 2005. In a new lawsuit, his former personal secretary claimed Bransfield sexually assaulted him in 2014. ( Dale Sparks / AP )Read moreDale Sparks / AP