Bishop resigns after sex probe
Church says behaviour ‘completely unacceptable’
The Pope has accepted the resignation of the Bishop of Palmerston North, Charles Drennan, after an allegation of “unacceptable behaviour” of a sexual nature.
And the Herald on Sunday can reveal the church is investigating a second allegation made against him by a different woman.
Drennan’s removal is significant since the church has long considered sexual relationships between clerics and adult women to be sinful, but not criminal or necessarily worthy of permanent sanction.
The #MeToo movement and the scandal over exCardinal Theodore McCarrick, however, have forced a reckoning about the imbalance of power in relationships between clerics and lay adults, nuns and seminarians, and whether such relationships can ever be consensual.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of New Zealand, Cardinal John Dew, said in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Drennan’s behaviour with one of the women was “completely unacceptable”.
Speaking from Rome, where he is for a global meeting of cardinals, he said Drennan admitted to engaging in sexual behaviour with her. She was in her late teens at the time.
She met Drennan through the Catholic Church. It took eight years for her to come forward.
“The complaint came just when Pope Francis issued some new regulations to deal with any accusations about bishops that fell to me to do as the metropolitan archbishop. I contacted Rome, told them we’d received the complaint. They told us to go ahead with an investigation. The people concerned were interviewed.”
Dew — who is due to meet the Pope in Rome in the next few days — said Drennan stood aside from his duties.
The investigation found the behaviour was inappropriate for a bishop of the Catholic Church, but not criminal.
Dew said people often took years to pluck up the courage to make a complaint.
The Church was committed to supporting the woman, her family and those around her.
“The young woman has requested that details of the complaint remain private. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Bishop Drennan’s behaviour was completely unacceptable, and it fully supports the young woman for coming forward,” Dew said.
He said another investigation was ongoing after a second woman made further allegations.
He said the relationship could be described as an “adult to adult relationship”.
The woman didn’t want to make a formal complaint, but the matter has since been referred to the Vatican and is being investigated by the Church.
Dew tendered Drennan’s resignation to Pope Francis.