Irish ex-priest and convicted sex offender receives $800 a month pension from Church

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Convicted child molester and former priest Oliver O'Grady receives $800 a month from the Catholic Church

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Defrocked Irish priest, Oliver O’Grady, will receive almost $800 a month for the next ten years from his diocese in Stockton, California.

Over the ten years these payments will amount to $94,560.  

O’Grady confessed to molesting up to 25 children in the United States. He was charged with the molestation of two brothers between 1978 and 1991.

However, during interview for the award-winning documentary “Deliver us From Evil” he confessed to having molested up to 25 children.

His acts cost the Stockton diocese millions in settlement claims from sexual abuse lawsuits.

In 1993 he went to prison to serve a 14-year-sentence for his crimes. He was released after six years and deported to Ireland.

Stockton Diocese Bishop Stephen Blaire told O’Grady to request to be removed from the priesthood. The priest refused at first but said that he would agree to leaving the priesthood if the Church gave his a monthly allowance. The Church agreed.

“I wanted to provide some measure of justice or peace of mind for his victims that he could never again use his priesthood to damage families,” said Blaire. “I didn't see any other way of guaranteeing that he would be out of the priesthood.”

Nancy Sloan, now 45-years-old was abused by O’Grady when she was eleven.

She said “He gets rewarded. I get very frustrated…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 victim’s fund.”

This week the ex-priest turned 65 and can now start to claim his $788 pension from the Church. The money is being called “hush money” by many including the Kansas City Star.

The newspaper claims that Bishop Roger Mahoney and others were aware of O’Grady’s history of abuse and turned a blind eye to his actions moving him from parish to parish so his evil acts would go undetected by the authorities.

Jeff Anderson, the lawyer for the two brothers involved in the case that sent him to jail, said the former priest did not deserve any money.

“Why would they pay him after he's been deported, after he's been convicted?” he said.

“He's deserving of no money, certainly from them.”

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