Glenn L. Pace

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Glenn Leroy Pace (born 1940) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 1985 having served as a member of the presiding bishopric and the First Quorum of Seventy. He is known for having investigated accusations of ritualistic child abuse in the LDS Church in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[edit] Church service

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Born in Provo, Utah to Latter-day Saint parents, Pace has been affiliated with the LDS Church all his life. He was baptized at the age of eight years old. He served as a missionary for the LDS Church in the New England States Mission. He served as a elders quorum president, counselor in a bishopric, and stake clerk early in his adulthood. He also served as the president of the Australia Sydney North Mission of the church. To date he was the last person to serve simutaneosly as mission president and general authority,^{[citation needed]} though there are men who finished out tenures as mission president before taking on responsibilities as a general authority.

Pace became the second counselor to Presiding Bishop Robert D. Hales in 1985. In 1992, Pace was released from this position and became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1997 and 1998, he was a member of the general presidency of the church's Sunday School and from 1998 to 2001 he was in the general presidency of the Young Men organization.

[edit] Ritualistic child abuse investigation

Main article: Pace memorandum

In July 1990, when he was a member of the LDS Church's presiding bishopric, Pace wrote an internal memorandum to the church's Strengthening Church Members Committee about his investigations into sixty alleged incidents of ritualized child abuse among Latter-day Saints in Utah, Idaho, California, Mexico, and elsewhere. Pace concluded that he believed the allegations and that he suspected parents and other members were participating in ritualized child abuse.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

In 1991, the Utah State Legislature appropriated $250,000 for the Attorney General's office to investigate these allegations. The investigators interviewed hundreds of alleged victims, but they were "unable to substantiate with physical evidence the incidents reported". The 1995 report added that the specific accusations against church leaders were "absurd", and the head of psychiatry at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City said he "has never been able to independently verify memories of satanic ritual abuse".^[5]^[6]^[7]

[edit] Family

Pace is married to Jolene Clayson and is the father of six children.

[edit] See also

Henry B. Eyring : another counselor to Robert D. Hales

[edit] Notes

^ Glenn L. Pace, "Ritualistic Child Abuse", memorandum to Strengthening Church Members Committee, 1990-07-19. A photoreproduction of the memo is in Jerald and Sandra Tanner (1992). Satanic Ritual Abuse and Mormonism (Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah Lighthouse Ministry) and is available at utlm.org.
^ James Coates, "Mormons Study Satanism Claims: Members Report Abuse As Kids By Renegade Cliques", Arizona Republic, 1990-11-03, p. A7.
^ Salt Lake Tribune, 1991-10-25, p. A1.
^ Deseret News, 1991-10-25, p. A1.
^ Michael R. King and Matt Jacobson (1995). Ritual Crime in the State of Utah: Investigation, Analysis & A Look Forward (Salt Lake City: Utah Attorney General's Office).
^ "Report Finds Little Proof of Ritual Abuse", Deseret News, 1995-04-25, p. B2.
^ "Satanism Probe Comes Up Empty," Salt Lake Tribune, 1995-02-28, p. D3.