NM- Predator priest passes away

Predator priest passes away

He admitted “inappropriate relationships”

Cleric was later sent to work in New Mexico

Victims blast Catholic archbishop for “continuing secrecy”

For immediate release: Monday, Dec. 9, 2013

For more information please contact SNAP Director David Clohessy of St. Louis (314) 566-9790 cell, [email protected]

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is disclosing that a Catholic priest who was accused of molesting children and worked in Albuquerque has passed away.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/05/4671017/former-monk-who-prompted-missouri.html

He is Fr. Bede Parry who worked at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic church (4020 Lomas Blvd NE, Albuquerque, 505-255-6391) in the early 1990s. Parry was working in Las Vegas, NV when the allegations against him surfaced in 2011.

Parry became an Episcopal priest in Las Vegas in 2004 but resigned from his position after the first of two child sex abuse lawsuits against him were filed.  He also worked in Missouri and Minnesota.

Parry’s passing was noted on the Facebook page of his lawyer, Joseph Paul Smith:

https://www.facebook.com/joseph.smith.3950?fref=ts

In 2011, Parry was sued for allegedly molesting a boy in the late 1980s in northwest Missouri. He admitted to his church supervisors that he had been involved in three “inappropriate relationships.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging New Mexico Bishop Michael Sheehan to “aggressively seek out anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Parry’s crimes.”

“Obviously, Fr. Parry can’t be criminally charged, but it’s possible other current and former Catholic officials who may have ignored or concealed his crimes might be prosecuted,” said SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, “But that will only happen if others with knowledge or suspicions of wrongdoing speak up.”

“Archbishop Sheehan and his colleagues have pledged to be open and transparent about child molesting clerics,” said SNAP Director David Clohessy of St. Louis, “Yet as best we can tell, he’s told no one that a serial predator priest who spent time in his diocese has passed away.”

"Our hearts ache for the victims of Fr. Parry," said Clohessy. "It might provide them some sorely-needed consolation to know that this cleric can't hurt any other kids. We hope that Catholic officials in New Mexico will show some compassion and courage and spread the word about the passing of this admitted predator priest."

Parry’s photo and work history are here:                                                                                                     

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Parry_Bede_OSB.htm

Parry belonged to a Catholic religious order known as the Benedictines.

Here’s a summary of the case against Parry, from the website BishopAccountability.org:

A former Benedictine priest, Parry was accused in a June 2011 lawsuit of having sexually abused a boy in 1987. The boy was a member of a choir Parry directed at Conception Abbey in MO. The boy told his parents the following day, and the parents confronted Parry's superiors, to whom Parry had previously admitted to "inappropriate sexual relationships." In a July 2011 lawsuit Parry was accused of sexually abusing a 14-15 year old boy in 1982. This accuser said he was a piano student of Parry's and member of Parry's boys choir. Parry acknowledged in 2011 that "most of the allegations are true." Parry was sent to New Mexico for sex offender treatment for three months in 1987. He went on to work in the Southwest for Lutheran and Catholic churches. He was not allowed to return to the Benedictine Abbey, after which he left the Catholic priesthood. A psychological test administered to Parry in 2000 during his efforts to become a minister determined that Parry was a "sexual abuser with the proclivity to reoffend with minors." Parry nonetheless became an Episcopal priest. He served as an organist, choir master and assistant priest at a Las Vegas church from 2000-June 2011, stepping down after the first lawsuit was filed and publicized.

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])