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A Severe Defect

CARDINAL MAHONY TESTIFIES IN MOLESTATION TRIAL

By Lesley Payne

A version of the lawsuit against the diocese of Dallas, which resulted in a $120 million award to the plaintiffs, is raging in Stockton, California. Victims Joh (age 19) and James Howard (age 22) claim that three bishops (including then bishop of Stockton, Roger Mahony) allowed Father Oliver O'Grady to work in parishes in Turlock, Lodi, San Andreas and Stockton, knowing the priest to be a pedophile. The Howards claim they had been molested by O'Grady for more than ten years.

According to the June 12 Stockton Record, Nancy Sloan-Ferguson testified on June 11 that in 1986 she presented Bishop Donald Montrose and Vicar General Monsignor James Cain a copy of the letter of apology she received from O'Grady after he molested her at age 11 (O'Grady had been instructed to write the letter by the pastor of the parish where he was assigned at the time of that incident). Now working as a rape crisis counselor, Sloan-Ferguson said she warned the bishop and vicar general that O'Grady might be continuing to molest children. She said she asked them if there had been any further complaints about O'Grady since her 1976 case, and they said there had not been.

In 1994 O'Grady was sentenced to 14 years at Mud Creek State Penitentiary in Ione, California for molesting the Howards.

Lawyers for the diocese of Stockton claim that church officials did not consider O'Grady to be a continued threat to children because in the 1970s and 1980s mental health professionals did not know much about pedophilia and thought the disorder could be controlled by the counseling O'Grady was receiving.

On Friday, June 12, according to a June 13 Stockton Record report, the Howards' attorneys asked Cardinal Mahony how he could have been unaware of O'Grady's letter apologizing for touching Sloan-Ferguson; how his closest aide, Monsignor James Cain, could not have reported to him that the girl's parents had come to him to complain about the alleged molestation, as the parents claim; and how in 1984 he could have appointed O'Grady pastor of St. Andrew's in San Andreas without first further investigating him after a police investigation into alleged child molestation by O'Grady.

In 1984, according to the June 12 Stockton Record, O'Grady's counselor reported O'Grady to Child Protective Services after the priest allegedly confessed to having had recent sexual relations with a child. According to former Stockton police officer Jerry Cranston, a year before Mahony ended his five-year stint as bishop of Stockton, the diocese's attorney persuaded police to drop child molestation charges against O'Grady. The diocese's attorney, Tom Shepherd, said Cranston, claimed the incident in question was isolated, with no other complaints reported, and said that O'Grady would never again work with children. However, Shepherd denied that he had everpromised that O'Grady would not work with children, and stated that police said they had no evidence against O'Grady.

Mahony claimed that, in 1984, he did not know of the 1976 molestation allegations, that he ws never told the details of the 1984 allegations and that he had no reason to believe that other incidents had occurred, especially since the Stockton Police Department had found no evidence substantiating the allegations.

Why didn't Monsignor Cain tell what he knew about the 1976 letter where O'Grady admitted to inappropriately touching a child? Mahony answered: "I just think it's very difficult for me to speculate what Monsignor Cain would have or should have said at different points."

Mahony said he had referred O'Grady to a psychiatrist before assigning him to St. Andrew's: "If there's a suspicion or a problem, we refer it to competent professionals to assist in making a decision. If the competent professionals do not raise any flags or concerns, then we rely on their judgment," Mahony said.

However, the Howards' attorneys pointed out two parts of psychiatrist John Morris' report on O'Grady, where Morris wrote: "Father O'Grady reveals a severe defect in maturation, no only in the matter of sex, but more importantly in the matter of social relationships... Perhaps Oliver is not truly called to the priesthood."

Mahony, however, said that Morris never stated O'Grady was unfit for the priesthood, but recommended that the priest attend a 30-day spritual retreat and submit to spiritual guidance. Dr. Morris, said the cardinal, "found some difficulties that were all treatable. At that time, I did feel professional counselors and psychiatrists were capable of helping these people."

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