Two Roman Catholic priests linked to a former West Virginia bishop's alleged financial improprieties and sexual abuse have done the world a favor by resigning from their posts in the West Virginia diocese.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Or maybe do.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

On Monday, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston announced the resignations of Monsignors Anthony Cincinnati and Kevin Quirk. A third priest, Frederick Annie, resigned in September, it said. The diocese didn’t give a reason for the moves.



“Archbishop Lori has and continues to make a number of decisions and changes for the good of the local Church, which includes also for the good of these priests,” said Tim Bishop, spokesman for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.



Msgr. Annie didn’t respond to questions about his resignation, but in an emailed statement on church accountability said the church is confronting “a number of most serious issues.” He added, “Since governance of the Church is primarily limited to the ranks of bishops it falls to them to address these difficult and complex situations.”

Msgr. Quirk didn’t return requests for comment. Msgr. Cincinnati referred questions to Mr. Bishop.

Like Annie, Quirk and Cincinnati were close aides to disgraced former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who stands accused of credible allegations of sexual misconduct and what sounds an awful lot like embezzlement from diocesan funds.

For specific details on Bransfield's alleged wrongdoing, we turn to the Washington Post:

In the years before he was ousted for alleged sexual harassment and financial abuses, the leader of the Catholic Church in West Virginia gave cash gifts totaling $350,000 to fellow clergymen, including young priests he is accused of mistreating and more than a dozen cardinals in the United States and at the Vatican, according to church records obtained by The Washington Post.



[…]



The gifts came as a succession of younger male clerical assistants complained to church officials in West Virginia that Bransfield was sexually harassing them. Similar concerns were raised about Bransfield’s conduct in Philadelphia, where he taught at a Catholic high school, and in the District of Columbia, where he was head of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from 1990 to 2005, the report says.



[…]



During his 13 years as bishop in West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the nation, Bransfield spent $2.4 million in church money on travel, much of it personal, which included flying in chartered jets and staying in luxury hotels, according to the report. Bransfield and several subordinates spent an average of nearly $1,000 a month on alcohol, it says. The West Virginia diocese paid $4.6 million to renovate Bransfield’s church residence after a fire damaged a single bathroom. When Bransfield was in the chancery, an administrative building, fresh flowers were delivered daily, at a cost of about $100 a day — almost $182,000 in all.

It appears to be as bad as it sounds. The Post details a long and convoluted history of abuse and mismanagement, including a culture of “fear of retaliation and retribution” that Bransfield personally fostered. And that is on top of the allegations of sexual abuse brought against the disgraced bishop.

Nearly as bad as Bransfield's reported lavish lifestyle and alleged lecherous behavior is that his three closest aides, Cincinnati, Quirck, and Annie, appear to have done nothing to curb his appetites. These men had an obligation and ethical duty to report or, at the very least, advise against felonious and deeply immoral behavior and they did nothing, according to a confidential report prepared for the Vatican by a team of lay investigators.

Having reviewed private diocesan records and confidential documents, the team of lay investigators recommend on Feb. 13 that Quirk and Cincinnati be removed immediately (Annie had already resigned months earlier). The investigators also recommended that Bransfield be “stripped of his powers as bishop, removed from ministry and forced to pay unspecified restitution,” the Post notes.

And as for the diocesan finance board, consisting of Church officials and lay people, it should have been monitoring Bransfield’s extravagant lifestyle for the entire time he led the Catholic Church in West Virginia. Unfortunately, they were either totally in the dark or "extremely passive" about his reported financial abuses.

It is good that at least two more bad actors have stepped down following reports of their complicity and/or inaction during Bransfield’s reign as bishop.

But how does it ever get to this point in the first place?