Church pays abusive ex-priest.....

[Nonno]

"Oliver O'Grady has been called the Hannibal Lecter of pedophile Catholic priests. He has been gone from the Stockton Diocese for 17 years, but the civil lawsuits keep coming — 22 to date, resulting in $18.7 million paid to victims.

And Saturday, when O'Grady turns 65 in his native Ireland, an annuity purchased by the diocese seven years ago will pay him about $788 a month for 10 years, totaling $94,560. There is nothing the diocese, its parishioners or his outraged victims can do about it.

"He gets rewarded. I get very frustrated," said Nancy Sloan, 45, who was sexually abused by O'Grady when she was 11. "The church has certainly gone back on its word countless times. I don't know why it wouldn't even cross their minds to go back on the annuity — give it back to a victims fund."

O'Grady has admitted abusing many children of various ages, boys and girls, and said he slept with two mothers to get access to their children. He was convicted of child sexual abuse in 1993 and spent seven years in prison.

Some blogs and news reports have called the payments "hush money," part of a deal to keep O'Grady from testifying against former Bishop Roger Mahony and other diocesan officials accused of knowing about his abuse but moving him from parish to parish.

"That's not true at all," said Bishop Stephen Blaire, who said he was the one who arranged the annuity after he took over leadership of the diocese in 1999.

The truth, Blaire said, is that he fervently wanted O'Grady to be stripped of his priesthood. His faculties, or authority to exercise his priesthood, already had been taken away. But defrocking a priest was a

"long and cumbersome process," one with "no guarantees," especially a decade ago, Blaire said."

Much more at: Church pays abusive ex-priest - Faith & Values - Modbee.com