Stockton Diocese finances strained in the wake of abuse lawsuits, bishop says

CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Sue Nowicki
snowicki@modbee.com

It will be 20 years next month since Oliver O’Grady last served as a priest in the Stockton Diocese. Yet the impact of the notorious pedophile’s 22 years at five parishes remains huge — on his victims and on the diocese’s finances.

To date, more than two dozen of O’Grady’s victims have collected nearly $25 million in damages from the diocese and its insurance providers, including a $1.75 million settlement announced last week. That does not include an additional $500,000 scheduled to be paid over the next several years in one case, and there are two additional O’Grady lawsuits pending.

Compare that with about $7 million awarded for all other clergy abuse lawsuits against six priests and one Catholic brother, including the largest, a $3.75 million award against the Rev. Michael Kelly last year. Two more lawsuits are pending against him.

Sunday, a letter from Bishop Stephen Blaire was read in all of the diocese’s 35 parishes and 14 missions, or small churches, from Lodi to Turlock and from Tracy to Mammoth. It referred to the “evil of sexual abuse” and stated: “The cash reserves from which these payments are made are all but gone. The money that remains for handling these cases is a small fraction of what is needed to face pending lawsuits as well as any new claims.”

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