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PENNSYLVANIA: The Dark Side of Charles Bennison

The Dark Side of Charles Bennison

By David W. Virtue

PHILADELPHIA, PA 7-19-2004--Charles Bennison, Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, has rightly earned his reputation throughout the world as an apostate and heretical bishop, as well as being a liar.

His “theology” has been deemed so crazy that people find it difficult to believe that a bishop could say and affirm the things that he does and still remain a bishop.

He has said Jesus was a sinner who forgave himself and he has changed the marriage ceremony to a Visigoth rite for same-sex blessings and much more.

He cannot be trusted to keep his promises. When he ran for the office of Bishop Coadjutor, he promised to keep the Parsons Plan for Forward in Faith traditionalist parishes in the diocese. Following his election, he broke that promise.

He wrote a “Pastoral Direction” to Fr. David Moyer, Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, stating that the priest would receive a trial if the demands were not met. He lied; he never intended to give Fr. Moyer a trial. More recently Virtuosity reported the conclusions of a “whistleblower” over massive financial irregularities in the Diocese.

Now, in addition to all this, there is something else – a sadistic “dark side” to Bishop Bennison in which he takes pleasure in inflicting pain on others.

When Bennison “inhibited” and then “deposed” Fr. Moyer, he issued public statements about how this “pained” him and “grieved” him. But the “real” Charles Bennison was revealed on the day of Fr. Moyer’s “deposition”. The “deposition” was intended by Bennison to expel Fr. Moyer from his church and from his home – and to prevent the traditionalist priest, and the national leader of Forward in Faith NA from being a priest anywhere in the Anglican Communion.

The deposition followed with six months of severe emotional distress for the Anglo-Catholic priest who had been prevented by Bennison from functioning as a priest because of the “inhibition” laid on him.

When the “deposition day” came around it should have been a solemn and sad occasion. Not for Charles Bennison. He summoned two priests to witness him signing the sentence of “deposition”. To get them in the mood, he began to tell jokes. When all three were smiling, a photographer was summoned to take a picture of the smiling Charles Bennison signing the “deposition”.

When Fr. Moyer’s lawyers demanded to see the picture, Bennison responded by saying that the picture was “destroyed or was irretrievably lost” and that Bennison did “not recall with specificity the substance of the joke(s)”.

As an indication of the state of the diocese, Bennison admitted recently to another orthodox priest that there had been a major reduction in pledges throughout the diocese, and that some 70 out of 159 parishes had serious financial problems. He also said that the Diocese of Pennsylvania is "over churched in terms of buildings since many parishes were built before modern transportation. He indicated that 40 parishes now have less than 40 members.

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