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A26 u.s. news
Dialuna 29 november 2021

Phil Saviano, key clergy sex abuse whistleblower, dies at 69

(AP) — Phil Saviano, a outspoken critic of the Vati-
clergy sex abuse survivor can’s reluctance to deal deci-
and whistleblower who sively with the fallout from
played a pivotal role in ex- the scandal. In 2008, when
posing decades of preda- Pope Benedict XVI hinted to
tory assaults by Roman U.S. bishops during a visit
Catholic priests in the that they’d mishandled the
United States, has died. church’s response, Saviano
He was 69. questioned the pontiff’s de-
cision to follow his remarks
Saviano’s story figured with Masses in New York
prominently in the 2015 Os- and Washington.
car-winning film “Spotlight”
about The Boston Globe’s “If he was really serious about
investigation that revealed the issue, that Mass would
how scores of priests mo- not be held in New York. It
lested children and got away would be held here in Bos-
with it because church lead- ton,” he said.
ers covered it up. He died
on Sunday after a battle with In 2009, suffering kidney
gallbladder cancer, said his failure and unable to locate
brother and caregiver, Jim a match among family or
Saviano. them, same as the police,” during the Spotlight Team’s entertainment industry pub- friends, he found a donor af-
brother Jim Saviano told the reporting on the cover-up of licity and concert promotion, ter SNAP spread the word in
In late October, Phil Saviano AP. “There were many bar- sexual abuse in the Catholic working closely with Collins, a nationwide email to 8,000
announced on his Facebook riers put in his way inten- Church, providing other crit- a lifelong friend and confi- clergy sex abuse survivors.
page that he was starting tionally and otherwise by ical sources, research materi- dante, as well as Ella Fitzger-
hospice care at his brother’s institutions and generational als and the names of several ald, Mel Torme and other The abuse that came to light
home in Douglas, Massachu- thinking. That didn’t stop accused priests,” said Mike artists. as a result of Saviano’s work
setts, where he died. him. That’s a certain kind of Rezendes, a member of the prompted Cardinal Law,
bravery that was unique.” Globe team that brought the In 1991, he became seriously Boston’s highest-ranking
“Things have been dicey the scandal to light and a current ill with AIDS and went pub- churchman, to step down.
last few weeks,” he wrote, A self-described “recovering AP investigative reporter. lic with his childhood abuse The Globe’s reporting
asking followers to “give a Catholic,” Saviano went on the following year, becoming showed Law was aware of
listen to Judy Collins singing to establish the New Eng- “He also shared his own one of the first survivors to child molesters in the priest-
‘Bird On A Wire’ and think land chapter of the Survivors heartbreaking story of abuse, come forward. hood but covered up their
of me.” Network of Those Abused imbuing us with the iron crimes and failed to stop
by Priests, or SNAP, an or- determination we needed “Father Holley forced me them, instead transferring
Saviano played a central role ganization working to bring to break this horrific story,” and two of my friends to have them from parish to parish
in illuminating the scandal, specific allegations of clergy Rezendes said. “During our repeated sexual contact with without alerting parents or
which led to the resignation sexual abuse to light. reporting, and over the last him,” Saviano said in an in- police.
of Boston’s Cardinal Ber- 20 years, I got to know Phil terview with the Globe — the
nard Law and church settle- His faith in the church shat- well and have never met any- first of many that would lead When the archbishop died in
ments with hundreds of vic- tered, Saviano instead leaned one as brave, as compassion- not only to criminal charges Rome in 2017, Saviano asked
tims. The Globe’s 2002 series on politicians and prosecu- ate or as savvy.” against the disgraced cleric bluntly: “How is he going to
earned it the Pulitzer Prize tors to bring offenders to jus- but widespread prosecutions explain this when he comes
for Public Service in 2003, tice. Saviano earned degrees in of others as the enormity of face to face with his maker?”
and “Spotlight” won Acad- “We’re putting our faith in zoology and communica- the scandal became evident.
emy Awards for best picture legislators and prosecutors to tions from the University of In 2019, at the Vatican for
and best original screenplay. solve this problem,” he told Massachusetts-Amherst and By the early 2000s, Saviano an abuse prevention sum-
Actor Neal Huff played Savi- reporters in 2002. Boston University and began was spending 10 hours a day mit called convened by Pope
ano in the film. working in hospital public on the phone with victims Francis, Saviano said he told
“Phil was an essential source relations. Later, he shifted to and journalists. He was an summit organizers to release
“My gift to the world was not the names of abusive priests
being afraid to speak out,” Sa- around the world along with
viano said in mid-November their case files.
in a brief telephone interview
with The Associated Press. “Do it to launch a new era of
transparency. Do it to break
Born June 23, 1952, Saviano the code of silence. Do it out
recalled going to confession of respect for the victims of
as a young boy at St. Denis these men, and do it to help
Church in tiny East Douglas, prevent these creeps from
Massachusetts, in the 1960s abusing any more children,”
and whispering his trans- he said.
gressions through a screen to
the Rev. David Holley. The Although there was a hard
priest, he said, violated that edge to much of his life, Sa-
sacred trust and forced the viano enjoyed traveling ex-
11-year-old to perform sex tensively and developed a soft
acts. Holley died in a New spot for Indigenous art. In
Mexico prison in 2008 while 1999, he launched an e-com-
serving a 275-year sentence merce website, Viva Oaxaca
for molesting eight boys. Folk Art, showcasing hand-
made decorative pieces he
“When we were kids, the purchased on trips to south-
priests never did anything ern Mexico and resold to col-
wrong. You didn’t question lectors across the U.S.