RHODE ISLAND/PENNSYLVANIA
Providence Journal
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Feb. 6, 2016
In small-town Pennsylvania, congregants at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford are praying for the Rev. Howard W. White Jr., who faces allegations of sexual abuse of teenage boys.
Mr. White, a former assistant chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, is embroiled in a widening sex-abuse scandal at the elite Episcopal prep school that dates to the 1970s. On Saturday, authorities confirmed that White is now under investigation for sexual abuse in North Carolina, where he was formerly a church rector.
“The congregation has been very supportive of him, holding him in prayer, sending him cards, bringing him soup,” said the Rt. Rev. Canon Audrey Cady Scanlan, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. “They’re caring for him as they would care for any member of the congregation who is in a time of need.”
The church has begun an investigation into White’s actions — at the same time that both Rhode Island State Police and an independent investigator try to uncover the full extent of what occurred at St. George’s. And dozens more former students have come forward to say they were victims of sexual abuse at the school.
White and others implicated in the St. George’s scandal have not been criminally charged; however the school has acknowledged that sexual abuse took place, and apologized to victims and the school community. The school has sent information to Rhode Island State Police, which are conducting a criminal investigation.
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