After a shooter killed two monks at Conception Abbey in June of 2002, the leadership at the abbey had to decide whether to disclose that they had knowledge of sexual misconduct by at least one member of its monastic community. Instead of doing the right thing, Abbot Gregory Polan and Mr. Daniel Madden misled the authorities.
Archive for Sexual Abuse
July 19, 2011 Letter to Abbot Polan
Gregory Polan
During a May 18, 2011, telephone conversation, we discussed … Your failure to disclose misconduct by Bede Parry and other monks following the 2002 shooting at Conception Abbey.
Churches full of sinners, of course
Two sexual molestation lawsuits against yet another Catholic institution surfaced late this summer. Bede Parry was a priest and director for a boys’ choir at Conception Abbey in Conception, Mo., about 17 miles southeast of Maryville. While supervising a boys’ choir camp in 1987, he allegedly engaged in sexual relations with a minor.
Conception Abbey named in second lawsuit
(Maryville, Mo.) A second lawsuit was filed last week in Nodaway County Circuit Court alleging that a former monk there, who was also an ordained priest, abused a teenage boy in the early 1980s.
St. John’s Abbey Covered Up Abuse by Bede Parry
(Left to Right… St. John’s Abbey Monks Fr. Rene McGraw, Fr. Roman Paur, Abbot Theisen, Abbot Klassen)
Br. Bede Parry from Conception Abbey in Missouri attended the St. John’s University School of Theology between 1979 and 1982. During his second year, Br. Parry pursued a college freshman, twenty years his junior, who was interested in music and the priesthood. The first sexual misconduct included oral sex in a St. John’s University music room in the spring of 1981. The misconduct continued into the fall of 1981 when another student, also being pursued by Br. Parry, reported the misconduct to Fr. Rene McGraw.
Abbey Faces Another Lawsuit
(News-Press Now) Another lawsuit was filed Thursday against Conception Abbey, alleging a priest sexually abused the plaintiff in the 1980s.
Second lawsuit filed against Conception Abbey alleging cover-up over former monk
(Kansas City Star) A second lawsuit has been filed against a northwest Missouri abbey alleging cover-up of sexual abuse by a former monk who directed its boys’ choir in the 1980s.
Lawsuit #2 Filed Against Conception Abbey
A second lawsuit was filed in Missouri today. The lawsuit, which names Conception Abbey as a defendant, alleges that Bede Parry sexually abused a fifteen year old member of the Conception Abbey Boys Choir over a eighteen month period beginning in 1982.
Civil Lawsuit Casts Wide Net
A civil lawsuit against Conception Abbey in rural Missouri has raised lingering questions about decisions made by both Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa.
Male victims of abuse need help, support
Another accusation, another cover-up, another betrayal, another lawsuit — as reported in the June 24 Times, “Former St. Cloud bishop accused of abuse cover-up.”
The news details the claimed lack of effective action demonstrated by religious hierarchy who were aware of monk Bede Parry’s inappropriate sexual behavior with several students about 30 years ago.
Statement From Former Abbot Jerome Hanus
“A lawsuit has been filed that makes several claims about me while I served as Abbot of Conception Abbey. I await the opportunity to respond to these claims according to the system of justice in our country.” – Jerome Hanus
Former leader of boys choir at Missouri abbey admits sexual misconduct
(The Kansas City Star) A former Benedictine monk who directed a boys choir at a northwest Missouri abbey in the 1980s admitted on Thursday that he had inappropriate sexual relations with several members of the group.
Bede Parry, who led the Abbey Boy Choir of Conception Abbey from 1982 to 1987, told The Kansas City Star that he had sexual contact with five or six of the choir members as well as a student at a Minnesota university.
Lawsuit alleges abuse at Conception Abbey
(St. Joseph News-Press) A Missouri man filed a lawsuit Thursday against Conception Abbey, alleging a priest continued to sexually abuse children while the monastery covered up his crimes.