ILLINOIS
Huffington Post
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
In May of 2002, the Rev. Donald O’Connor was relieved from his parish after the Catholic Diocese of Joliet in Illinois substantiated allegations of sexual abuse that occurred between 1967 and 1970, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Yet years after being removed from his position, O’Connor was still getting money from parishioners who had no idea they were paying an accused pedophile to pray for them, according to a local investigation.
Documents obtained by Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV show that mere weeks after O’Connor was barred from the ministry, the disgraced priest was offered a potentially lucrative job performing “mass intentions,” a Catholic tradition that allows parishioners to pay priests for a personal prayer.
The payments were offered by Diocese Chancellor Sister Judith A. Davies in a letter sent on June 20, 2002, a month after O’Connor was officially dismissed, WLS-TV reports. If O’Connor was in need of stipends, he should contact Davies’ secretary, and “a check will be issued every three months,” the letter read, according to the station.
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