From West Virginia to the Vatican: How a Catholic bishop secretly sent money from a church hospital to a cardinal in Rome

By Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg The idea came to West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield while he was in Rome visiting an old friend, a powerful cardinal at the Vatican. Bransfield thought the cleric’s apartment was barren and lacked a comfortable room for watching television. After Bransfield returned to West Virginia, in May …