Abp. Jerome Hanus accused of negligence in abuse case

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.

The alleged victim, identified only as John Doe 48, claims in the suit that he was abused by Fr. Bede Parry, a choir director at the abbey and seminary college east of Maryville, and that the abuse consisted of being coerced into various sex acts between 1982 and 1984. Illegal activity described in the lawsuit included oral sex in addition to fondling and kissing.

Parry, 69, is not named as a defendant in the suit, which claims the abbey sought to cover up the assaults, and that Parry's superior knew about the incidents but failed to take appropriate action by removing the monk from his post.

The abbot in charge of Conception Abbey at the time was Fr. Jerome Hanus, who later served as bishop of Saint Cloud, Minn., and is currently archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa.

Confronted by the alleged victim's parents, Hanus, according to the lawsuit, told them that Parry had suffered a "mental breakdown" for which he would receive treatment. In fact, the suit alleges, Parry confessed to his superior that he had been involved in three previous inappropriate sexual relationships.

The lawsuit states that Parry was ultimately sent to a Catholic treatment center in New Mexico for three months and later worked for several churches in the Southwest before becoming an Episcopal clergyman.

Maryville Daily