Episcopalians defend bishop’s decision in clergy sexual abuse case

The Episcopal Church is rejecting charges that its top leader,
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, mishandled the ordination of
a former priest who is now accused of sexual abuse.

Jefferts
Schori has remained silent on the matter, which surfaced after an
alleged victim filed suit in June against a Benedictine monastery in
Missouri where the priest, Bede Parry, once lived.

Parry, a former
Catholic monk, was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 2004 in Nevada,
where Jefferts Schori was bishop before her 2006 election as presiding
bishop of the national church body. Her successor in Nevada, Bishop Dan
Edwards, said July 5 that a thorough review of church records shows that
Jefferts Schori "handled the situation perfectly appropriately."