Michael Joseph Bransfield

Styles of Michael Bransfield
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	none

Michael Joseph Bransfield (born September 8, 1943) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who currently serves as Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston.

Biography

Michael Bransfield was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended St. Bridget’s Grade School, St. John the Baptist High School and Roman Catholic High School for Boys.

From St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Master's degree in Divinity. Bransfield was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal John Krol on May 15, 1971, and then did pastoral work in Huntington Valley until 1973. He earned his Master's in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., in 1973, and then worked as a teacher, chaplain, and Chairman of the Religion Department at Lansdale Catholic High School.

Father Bransfield was named Assistant Director and Director of Liturgy (1980), Director of Finance (1982), and Rector (1986) at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. In 1987 he was raised to the rank of a Honorary Prelate of His Holiness.

On December 9, 2004, Bransfield was appointed the eighth Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, by Pope John Paul II. He received episcopal consecration on February 22, 2005 from Cardinal William Henry Keeler, with Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick and Bishop Bernard William Schmitt serving as co-consecrators, at St. Joseph's Cathedral.

A trustee and current president of The Papal Foundation, Bishop Bransfield also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Distance University, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He holds membership in the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he serves as treasurer and sits on the Communications Committee and the National Collections Committee.

Bransfield has also drawn the ire of some of the Wheeling community for living in what some have characterized as an obscenely posh mansion while decrying the church's ability to fund a restoration of the historic Mount De Chantall building. Bransfield has also spent upwards of $25,000 securing himself a nominal position on the with the college of cardinals. Some in the community have come to see this as hypocritical and contrary to the mission of the Catholic church in the Ohio Valley.

External links

• Catholic-Hierarchy
• Diocese of Wheeling-Charlestown

Preceded by none	Rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception 1990–2004	Succeeded by Walter R. Rossi
Preceded by Bernard William Schmitt	Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston 2004–present	Succeeded by incumbent

Persondata
Name	Bransfield, Michael Joseph
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 8, 1943
Place of birth
Date of death
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