The Episcopal Church’s diocese of Nevada sought to calm an uproar
over a former Benedictine monk who admitted sexual indiscretions with a
parishioner before he was ordained an Episcopal priest by Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is now leader of the 2.3 million member
U.S. church.
“It looks to me like she handled the situation by the book,” Bishop
Dan Edwards said of Jefferts Schori’s actions regarding Fr. Bede Parry, a
church organist and former Episcopal priest.
Jefferts Schori became the 450-year-old church’s first female leader when she was appointed presiding bishop in 2006.
Parry, 69, is a defendant in a Missouri lawsuit filed last month over
his admitted sexual relationship with a male parishioner at a summer
camp run by a Roman Catholic monastery.
He has since resigned from the
priesthood and from All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas, Edwards
said.
Jefferts Schori ordained Parry in 2004, aware that he had offended
while a Benedictine monk at Conception Abbey, which runs a large
monastery in Northwest Missouri.
Jefferts Schori and a committee of clergy and lay people were also
aware that Parry went for treatment, but that a subsequent psychological
examination in 2000 found he was a sexual abuser who had a proclivity
to reoffend with minors.
Jefferts Schori forbade Parry from having contact with minors, under
the church’s decade-old policy, “Safeguarding God’s Children,” that
requires windows on all doors and does not allow children to go
somewhere with a single adult.
The Episcopal Church has declined comment, referring all inquiries to the Nevada diocese.
“It’s deeply upsetting, deeply upsetting,” Edwards said of the
situation surrounding Parry. “A situation like this gives rise to a lot
of feelings, and sometimes a lot of fantasies of things that have not
happened.”
There was no evidence that Parry had offended again since the 1987
incident, though the lawsuit brought by “John Doe” said there had been
other prior incidents of which the Abbot at Conception Abbey was aware.
“As I review what was done from 2002 to 2004, I find no fault with
the actions of any of our people, lay or ordained. The bishop, priests,
and lay people of Nevada kept children safe and they were true to our
belief that people can be redeemed,” Edwards said in a statement.
“It is ironic that some have taken this incident as a pretext to
attack Bishop Katharine for laxity in enforcing rules for the safety of
children. Bishop Katharine introduced Safeguarding God’s Children
standards and training here. No bishop has ever done so much to rid our
diocese of clergy misconduct or to establish and enforce rules to
preserve healthy boundaries.”
Parry suffers from congestive heart failure, and has virtually no pension, Edwards said.
According to the lawsuit filed by Jeff Anderson’s Minneapolis law
firm, Parry joined the monastic community in Missouri in 1973.
He was
secretary to the abbot and taught, while directing the choir.
He was
ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1983.
He received treatment at
Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico, remaining in the southwest at
various churches, before switching to the Episcopal Church.