By Chico Harlan for The Washington Post
WHEELING, W.Va. — The Vatican on Tuesday made an effort to recover from one of its most damaging scandals, naming bishop Mark Brennan to lead a West Virginia diocese whose previous bishop stepped down amid allegations of sexual harassment and runaway financial abuse.
Brennan’s appointment comes 10 months after the retirement of bishop Michael Bransfield, who had led the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston for 13 years – doling out money to himself and other powerful clerics, according to a church investigation, in one of the nation’s poorest states.
Brennan, previously the auxiliary or assistant bishop in Baltimore, inherits a small and wounded statewide diocese of Catholics who have expressed betrayal about how the church handled Bransfield’s tenure. …