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

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Over the weekend, news broke that a former Penn State football coach, serving under head coach Joe Paterno, was involved in alleged sexual abuse of young boys. Although Paterno immediately notified the Athletic Director, he did not call the cops. David Clohessy, the director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is now calling for Paterno to be investigated. Yet when Clohessy learned in the 1990s that his brother Kevin, a priest, was a child molester, he covered it up.

The Kansas City Star is working with SNAP, and its lawyers, against Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn. Only once, in a brief story in 2003, did it ever mention that the SNAP director’s brother was charged with molestation; even then it never reported that David Clohessy refused to call the cops. And in a big puff piece on the SNAP director in September, it never mentioned this juicy story. The cover up—and that is exactly what it is—is sickening.

Nor does the Star ever bother to question the spurious lawsuits that SNAP lawyers have been bringing. Isn’t it more than just a little curious that the Catholic Church is being singled out for hundreds of “repressed memory” lawsuits? A Nexis search connecting “repressed memory” with “minister” yields 551 stories; connecting it to “rabbi” yields 71; and though the nation’s teachers vastly outnumber priests, there were 1208 stories on “teachers” and 1855 on “priests.”

Between 2009 and 2010, there was a startling 42 percent increase in false accusations against priests. The data didn’t come as a surprise to California attorney Donald H. Steier. Last year, he testified that “One retired F.B.I agent who worked with me to investigate many claims in the Clergy Cases told me, in his opinion, about ONE-HALF of the claims made in Clergy Cases were either entirely false or so greatly exaggerated that the truth would not have supported a prosecutable claim for childhood sexual abuse.” A really independent newspaper would report such stories. The Star is not one of them—it’s in bed with SNAP.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) announces the latest lawsuit against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The diocese, headed by Bishop Robert Finn, knows nothing about it. But attorney Rebecca Randles does: she coordinated the attack with SNAP. Virtually all the cases date back decades, and no one from the Kansas City Star questions any of it. This isn’t an anomaly—it’s the norm.

Randles got her start with Jeffrey Anderson, the most successful Church-shakedown lawyer in the nation. “He’s the man,” she once said. On June 2, they (and another attorney) sued Bishop Finn about a matter he had nothing to do with. Since then, Randles has been on a tear, finding new “victims” at a record pace.

 Randles and Anderson came together 20 years ago to represent David Clohessy (today he is the director of SNAP). After watching the movie “Nuts” in 1988—I’m not making this up—he suddenly “remembered” being molested by a priest decades ago. The lawsuit failed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Randles then made history when she was the first attorney to file suit against a priest in Missouri. It was another one of those “repressed memory” suits where the accuser suddenly recalls being molested decades ago. After first winning, an appeals court threw it out—the clock had run out on such claims. She vowed to push for a new strategy: she argued that the “trigger” for such claims should start when alleged victims “remember” when they were abused. In 2006, her dream came true: the Missouri Supreme Court said that a guy who suddenly remembered being molested 30 years prior could sue. It argued that the clock should begin when the “victims” suddenly “remember” being hit on. Ever since, the suits against the diocese (but not the public schools or any other institution) have never stopped.

Both Anderson and Randles give generously to SNAP, and indeed Randles has been known to pressure her clients to fork over some of their settlement money to her friends. The Star knows all of this, yet it continues the cover-up.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

There has been much discussion lately about the role of diocesan review boards in assessing charges of priestly sexual misconduct.  Catholic League president William Donohue offered the league’s position on this subject today:

“The Catholic League supports lay involvement on diocesan review boards that investigate cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests.  But it cautions that such panels are not an elixir and must themselves abide by certain neutral criteria.

“There have been many news reports lately on the tendency of parishioners to rally around a priest whom they know and respect once they learn of an accusation against him; an AP story today provides several more examples.  This is not hard to understand sociologically but it is nonetheless problematic.  These same lay men and women rarely know the face of the alleged victim, especially in cases that go back several years.  Thus their perceptions may be skewed.

“It is for this reason that all diocesan review boards should include former victims and/or their relatives.  David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, is an excellent source of information on this issue.  Any person who serves on such a review board should recuse himself if he knows either the accused or the alleged victim.  Furthermore, because the accused in these situations often seeks to find out who is on the review panel—for the purpose of ingratiating himself with the members—it is necessary to establish institutional safeguards that minimize this from happening.

“To show how faulty these boards can be, consider that as late as 1994  Rev. Paul Shanley was declared by the archdiocesan review board in Boston to be without ‘evidence of a diagnosable sexual disorder.’  One wonders what kind of sexual depravity it would take to label the serial rape of minors a sexual disorder.  In short, there is no virtue in being ‘non-judgmental.’  Reason, grounded in common sense, is needed.”