Bishop guilty of covering for brother

PHILADELPHIA, June 27 (UPI) -- An Episcopal Church court has found that the bishop of Pennsylvania concealed his brother's sexual abuse of a teenage girl in the 1970s.

The court must decide on an appropriate penalty for Bishop Charles Bennison Jr., The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Bennison, who has been suspended as bishop since October, could be permanently barred from church office, suspended or reprimanded.

Bennison was the rector at St. Mark's Church in Upland, Calif., in the early 1970s when he learned that his brother, the parish youth minister, was having sex with a teenager. He testified that he didn't find out until several years after his brother's misconduct began.

When John Bennison was ordained in 1975, Bennison said that he didn't report the abuse because he believed it had ended and because he didn't want to embarrass the victim.

The victim, now 50, said that Bennison ignored warning signs and provided her with no assistance after he found out.

Bennison is the third bishop to be put through a church trial in the history of the U.S. Episcopal Church.