SURPRISE - SEX ABUSE SCANDAL NOT OVER

Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux [Roman Catholic] officials have said they had not heard reports of any predatory behavior by a former priest before a man came forward, accusing the priest of molesting him as an altar boy.

However, people who claim to have had sexual relationships with the Rev. Etienne LeBlanc said they felt preyed on by an authority figure who took advantage of them, even if they were not victims in the eyes of criminal law.

A civil suit against LeBlanc and the diocese, filed by Morgan City native Jared Ribardi, was settled last month, and LeBlanc, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has never been arrested under any criminal charges.

The alleged encounters happened at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Morgan City, which is part of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. LeBlanc has also worked at Annunziata Catholic Church in Houma and is now retired.

Louis Aguirre, spokesman for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, wrote a letter to The Courier and Daily Comet after the settlement, which was not disclosed.

The diocese “has not ever known of any alleged ‘predatory behavior’ by Father LeBlanc,” Aguirre wrote, referring to Ribardi’s attorney’s allegations that the diocese knew about his predatory sexual behavior for 25 years.

I'd heard the priest's name bandied about for years, and I remember when LeBlanc went on sabbatical in the 1980s, but I don't recall the reason given for his absence at the time.

Natchitoches resident Clayton Delery, 55, said he disagreed with that statement when he read it.

Delery said when he was 17 he met LeBlanc at Teens Encounter Christ, a retreat for high school students in Reserve. They became friends, and Delery would sometimes visit LeBlanc at his rectory in Reserve, where they had sex, Delery said.

Since Delery was 17, the sexual encounters were not illegal, but LeBlanc surely abused his position of power by having sex with a 17 year old member of his parish.  The diocese said the priest received counseling during the year 1986-1987 and was deemed fit by doctors to return to parish work.

The alleged sexual encounters between LeBlanc and Ribardi, which include accusations that LeBlanc forced Ribardi to perform oral sex, happened in the early 1990s when Ribardi was as young as 9 and as old as 14, according to his civil petition.

Apparently, the counseling the doctors thought worked so wonderfully well did not, after all, "take".

Others have stepped forward with further information on two other instances of alleged abuse of  persons who were college students at the time, who have since died, one by suicide and the other from AIDS.  So far as is known, the diocesan authorities were not told.  The family of the man who died of AIDS asked that he not be identified.

His first cousin said she was going to testify at Ribardi’s trial. The woman, who asked to be unnamed because her identity would reveal her cousin’s, said he confessed on his deathbed to her that he had a sexual relationship with a priest while he was a college student.

“Later in life, it disturbed him greatly. ... As he was dying, he displayed anger toward the Catholic Church and would not accept the sacraments,” or Last Rites, she said.

I'm not sure why LeBlanc is referred to as an ex-priest in the article.  A retired priest is still a priest, not an ex-priest.  Was LeBlanc defrocked?  I doubt it.

UPDATE: I spoke to the reporter who wrote the story, and she clarified that she meant retired priest, rather than ex-priest.    

EPISCOPAL PRIEST RESIGNS AS HISTORY OF SEXUAL ABUSE IS REVEALED

From The Lead:

The Kansas City Star reports that a former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest who is now an Episcopal priest has resigned his position and has begun the process of renouncing his orders after admitting to committing sexual abuse against boys while serving as music director at a Roman Catholic monastery.

Bede Parry, 69, served All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas since 2000 and was received in 2004. The abuse, which took place between 1973 and 1979 at Conception Abbey, in Missouri and affected "five or six" separate victims, one of whom recently filed suit against the Abbey and the Benedictine Order. The suit alleges that he also has "inappropriate sexual contact" with a student at St. John's University in Minnesota in 1982 and again at the Abbey in 1987.

Another sordid story. Parry said he told the bishop in Nevada at the time, Katharine Jefferts Schori, about the 1987 incident, but not about the other incidents.

There's more.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

A spokeswoman at the Episcopal Church’s national office said Thursday that “we do not comment on lawsuits or allegations” and referred questions to the diocese in Nevada.

This simply will not do. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, who was Bishop of the Diocese of Nevada at the time, permitted Bede Parry to become an Episcopal priest. She must explain why.

Further, Bishop Paul Marshall, of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, PA, says in the comments at The Lead:

Now let's be serious. When 815-level lawyers threaten and cajole diocesan bishops not to reveal multiple sex-abuse cover-ups at the highest level lest former leaders be embarrassed, what can we expect, and why do we look down on the RCC? Serious and credentialled investigative reporters can contact me.

As a rector I had to follow a priest who was simply passed along by another bishop, and as a bishop have had the same experience with a staff member who was protected by his bishop, with catastrophic results here

On paper, we are a one-strike church, but in reality, too may people are walked. 815 refused comment on this story with principled-sounding obfuscation, which essentially tells it all, doesn't it? There is no more transparency at 815 than previously, as some of the commentators above know to their pain. (My emphasis)

Bishop Paul is exactly right. We need to hear an explanation from the national office of the Episcopal Church, and the sooner, the better.

UPDATE: SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) put out a statement:

To current and former Las Vegas Catholics and Episcopalians, we say: If you have knowledge or suspicions - however old, small or seemingly insignificant - about Parry’s crimes, it is your moral and civic duty to call police. Please summon the courage to do what's right, call law enforcement and hopefully prevent more devastated lives.

Church officials shouldn’t split hairs, make excuses, and be silent. Whether a predator is a diocesan or religious order cleric, alive or dead, Protectant or Catholic, still in Nevada or moved elsewhere doesn’t matter. The shepherds have a duty to protect his flock, help law enforcement, warn unsuspecting families and work hard to find and help others who’ve been wounded.
....

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

Update 2 from the comments:

Ann said...

write the pb's office -- pboffice@episcopalchurch.org and copy nrfox@episcopalchurch.org and crobertson@episcopalchurch.org and ssauls@episcopalchurch.org

If you'd like to express your opinion....

UPDATE 3: See Ann Fontaine's call for action at The Friends of Jake.