Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
This is surreal. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, Katharine Jefferts Schori, knew about the sexual abuse activities of a homosexual candidate for the Episcopal priesthood, did nothing about it, and indeed allowed him to become a priest. Today, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference outside the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph blaming members of the Catholic, as well as Episcopal, clergy.
The accused clergyman, Bede Parry, is a former member of the Benedictines of Conception Abbey in Missouri. In the 1970s, he sexually abused young males. He was later kicked out of the Abbey, and after being denied entrance into a Las Vegas monastery, he became an organist at All Saints Episcopal in Vegas. He then sought to become an Episcopal priest. In 2002, he informed the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada at the time, Katharine Jefferts Schori, of his latest (1987) sexual abuse transgression. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Jefferts Schori was told by an official at Conception Abbey about Parry’s past; she was even given damaging psychological records on him. No matter, in 2004, she welcomed him as an Episcopal priest. In July, 2011 Parry resigned from All Saints Episcopal following a lawsuit against him (he is charged with abuse when he was studying to be a Catholic priest).
It is important to note that at no time was Bede Parry a priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Nor is it true that the Diocese is named in the lawsuit. To top things off, Parry is not a Catholic priest. So why is SNAP advising Catholics to “come clean now” when the dirt is not on their hands? Why did it hold a press conference in Kansas City by the Cathedral? Because they hate Bishop Robert Finn? Why wasn’t it in New York City, home to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States? She’s the issue—not Bishop Finn.
Contact SNAP Director David Clohessy: SNAPclohessy@aol.com
