Peace, forgiveness ease monks’ pain
Conception’s ninth abbot tries to make sense of the shootings. In an effort to understand and help authorities, the abbey staff went through press files, employment records, seminary rosters and guest...
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The body fails. Even with pharmaceutical help – and Lloyd Robert Jeffress had plenty of that – the breakdown continues. This deteriorating march of time found Mr. Jeffress starting from a bad place. He...
View ArticleMonastery Recalls Shooting One Year Later
CONCEPTION, Mo – Every day, the Rev. Kenneth Reichert is reminded of the deadly rampage a year ago that shattered the serenity of his northwest Missouri abbey. He recalls the bloodshed whenever he uses...
View ArticleTower Topics: A Year Later
At 8:45 a.m. on June 10, 2002, an internal e-mail hit computer screens across Conception Abbey. “HELP!!!” it read. “We have heard gun shots. What is going on! PLEASE CONTACT!!!! No one could make sense...
View ArticleMiracle baby is proof that good conquers evil
I learned a couple of things in the aftermath of that June morning in 2002 when an old man with a rifle opened fire in the hallways of Conception Abbey. The first was that dawn always follows darkest...
View ArticleFrom death, new life
The abbot learned that it’s best to make certain that no disagreement goes unresolved. A lack of forgiveness or inability to be forgiven can be among the most crippling of experiences. From death, new...
View ArticleAnniversary of Abbey Shooting
CONCEPTION, Mo. (AP) — The doors at Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri are still unlocked and open, and forgiveness continues to be the theme as the members of the rural monastery remember a day of...
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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...
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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....
View ArticleForgiveness is harder in practice than in theory
Authentic forgiveness is a hard business, as any crime and justice reporter trying to fashion an article on the topic will confirm. The exceptional instance of a victim truly forgiving a criminal is...
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