Opus Dei says paid off accuser of 'VIP confessor'

(ANSA) - New York, January 8 - The influential Catholic group Opus Dei paid almost one million dollars for the silence of a woman who said she was molested by VIP priest John McCloskey, the organisation said Tuesday.
    McCloskey gained fame by converting leading US conservatives including former Senator Rick Santorum, Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, husband of US Ambassador to the Vatican Calista Gingrich.
    The anonymous accuser, who made her complaint in 2003, was paid $977,000 in 2005, Opus Dei said in its first admission of a sexual misconduct case.
    She told the Washington Post that McCloskey "put his hands on me" on several occasions during pastoral guidance sessions at the Catholic Information Center, not far from the White House.