WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
January 9, 2019
By Dennis Sadowski
Opus Dei, a well-known international Catholic organization, paid $977,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim in 2005 against a one-time high-profile priest in the nation’s capital.
The payment was made to an adult woman who said Father C. John McCloskey groped her several times while she was undergoing pastoral counseling because of a troubled marriage and serious depression, The Washington Post reported.
The incidents were described as occurring in meetings between Father McCloskey and the unnamed woman at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington.
The newspaper said it does not name the victims of sexual assault without their consent.
Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, said in a Jan. 7 statement that the settlement was reached in 2005. He described the priest’s actions as “deeply painful for the woman and we are very sorry for all she suffered.”
Opus Dei learned of the sexual misconduct from the woman in November 2002, according to the statement. Father McCloskey was removed from his role at the center 13 months later after the complaint was found to be credible, Msgr. Bohlin said.
The woman, who is now in her mid-50s and was 40 when she met with Father McCloskey, has remained involved in Opus Dei spiritual activities since.
She told The Washington Post that she was pleased by how Opus Dei handled her case.
Msgr. Bohlin said Father McCloskey’s “priestly activities with women have been very limited” since his reassignment from the Catholic Information Center and the restrictions placed upon him. The priest “had very few assignments in our activities for women” and that “his contact with individual women was limited to the confessional,” where priest and penitent are physically separated,” the vicar said.
The organization has separate activities for men and women.
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