The Rt. Rev. Orris G. Walker, Jr., Bishop of Long Island, has received standing committee approval to reinstate a former priest whose promiscuous sexual lifestyle was the subject of a lurid Penthouse magazine article in 1996.

Publication of “The Boys from Brazil” and its accompanying photos prompted an independent investigation called by diocesan convention to ascertain whether William Lloyd Andries and other priests in the Diocese of Long Island enticed young

Brazilian males to come to the United States with promises of sponsorship and employment as part of a scheme to abuse them sexually in what Penthouse alleged was a series of orgies, some of which it claimed occurred inside churches using vestments and liturgies.

The six-month investigation, headed by the retired Bishop of Central New York, the Rt. Rev. O’Kelley Whitaker, concluded that many of the allegations were unlikely or impossible to verify. But the task force did conclude that he had numerous homosexual partners, some of whom were parishioners of St. Gabriel’s Church in Brooklyn where Mr. Andries was serving as rector. Mr. Andries denied nearly all of the allegations made in the Penthouse article.

In approving Bishop Walker’s request, the standing committee chose to give Mr. Andries the benefit of the doubt, according to a diocesan official who spoke with The Living Church on the condition of anonymity.

“A lot of the conclusions (in the independent church investigation) were not provable, because they omitted the names of the accusers,” the official said.

Before the completion of the independent investigation, Mr. Andries resigned as rector of St. Gabriel’s and renounced his ordination vows. According to the diocesan official, in order for Mr. Andries to be reinstated, Bishop Walker must receive approval from bishops of the four dioceses geographically closest to Long Island: Connecticut, Newark, New York, and probably Albany because New Jersey is in the process of electing a bishop. When contacted, the Diocese of Long Island declined to confirm or deny the details of this report.