[Katharine] Jefferts Schori has made no public response to the lawsuit, and her office has referred reporters to the Diocese of Nevada. Perspectives, a weblog published by the Episcopal Church, has reprinted the statements by Edwards.
These responses are “sadly predictable, woefully inadequate and painfully self serving,” said David Clohessy, executive director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
“They’re focusing on protecting their reputations, not on protecting our children,” Clohessy told The Living Church July 11. “It’s terribly sad to see Nevada’s bishop defending his boss and her public image instead of helping the police charge a child molesting cleric.”
I’m no lawyer, but even [b]I[/b] know that this isn’t going to be swept under the rug…….and it [b]shouldn’t[/b] be. Things have gone too far for that, and sooner or later, KJS is going to have to face the music.
The longer she says nothing about it, the more suspicious people are going to be about her, because they’re going to continue thinking that she’s got something to hide. Whether she likes it or not, that’s the way it looks.
Thanks to T19 for helping to keep this very important story in the public eye.
815 must be hoping it will go away. But. it needs to stay out there until there are clear answers to the questions about what the PB knew at the time. No matter how long it takes.
In this Internet era, the truth will come out, eventually.
This is one of those unexpected events that could make for significant change down the road. Thanks for keeping us updated on what the Official Organs will obviously seek to ignore as much as possible.
(1) The RC priest received 3 months of treatment. At the time that was thought sufficient. I doubt it would be considered sufficient today. (2) He may not have been fully candid about other misbehavior. Today that would disqualify him. The diocese did not discover other misbehavior. Current standards for background checks may be more stringent. (3) The parish says there has been no misbehavior while he was serving in the Episcopal Church. The priest can be commended for his good conduct. (4) The diocese has not said, “If we had known then what we know now, and had judged then on the basis that we judge now, we would not have accepted this priest.” (5) Diocese and PB need to say that.
Whenever the controversy of sexual abuse arises in an Episcopal Church setting I remember the talk among older clergy in my diocese in a major metropolitan area on the west coast of at least two large parishes where there were scandalous relations between a priest and teenage boys. There were suicides associated with both. I never asked the particulars, but the late 80s to mid 90s seems right. Neither has gotten press, nor has the diocese opened up about our past coverups. (the brother of a bishop excepted and even there all the blame went on the former rector now bishop.) hypocrites
Cross-posted from Stand Firm:
What makes Nevada Bishop Edwards so sure that Parry’s only sexual assaults at Conception Abbey were of victims at least 16 years old? Boy choirs are by definition comprised of trebles overwhelmingly 14 years old or younger.
Consider the following statements from the lawsuit filing:
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10. Between 1978 and 1979, Bede Parry assisted with the Abbey Boy Choir (“Choirâ€) as an accompanist.
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12. From 1982 through 1987, Bede Parry lived and was assigned to the Abbey where he … directed the choir.
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14. In the Summer of 1987, the minor Plaintiff participated in a residential choir camp at the Abbey where Fr. Parry was the choir director.
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16. While at the choir camp at the Abbey, Fr. Parry had sexual contact with Plaintiff.
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19. … Fr. Parry was a known serial child predator who had sexually abused numerous students before Fr. Parry sexually abused the Plaintiff.
20. The Abbey knew that Fr. Parry had sexually abused other students prior to Fr. Parry’s sexual abuse of the Plaintiff. Between 1973 and 1979, while Bede Parry was a monk at the Abbey, but before Bede Parry was an ordained priest, Bede Parry reported to Abbot Hanus that he had been involved in three inappropriate sexual relationships.
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Also, consider these photos – http://bit.ly/pm6Zze and http://bit.ly/pnpKpB – from Conception Abbey’s “Companion Camp 2011â€, indicating that, even presently, boys much younger than 16 seem to be entrusted to an organist there.
It’s also curious that the the proviso for Parry’s acceptance as a priest in Nevada was that he be kept away from _all_ minors, not just those 16 years old or older.