SNAP Update: Let’s Shout out Our Gratitude to All the Reporters Who Exposed Clergy Sex Crimes

December 8, 2015

http://hamilton-griffin.com/snap-update-lets-shout-out-our-gratitude-to-all-the-reporters-who-exposed-clergy-sex-crimes/

Listen to these quotes from news reports. (The words won’t surprise you. But the timing may.)

— “A three month investigation reveals that in more than 25 dioceses across the US, church officials have failed to notify authorities, transferred molesting priests to other parishes, ignored parental complains and disregarded the potential damage to children who are the victims.”

— “At a time of heightened national awareness of the problems of child abuse, the Catholic Church in the US continues to ignore and cover up cases of priests who sexually molest children. . . .”

— “Catholic officials and their attorneys have sought court records, have attacked newspapers and have impugned the motives and even the sanity of those who have brought complaints against priests.”

— “Hundreds of children molested by Catholic priests in the US during the last five years have suffered severe emotional trauma. . . ”

These lines all appeared in a mainstream daily newspaper – the San Jose Mercury News — and subsequently in other newspapers – in the year. . . .1987. That’s right: almost 29 years ago.

The journalist who did the digging (and won several journalism awards for his painstaking work) was Carl Cannon.

I bring this up because to its credit, the highly acclaimed film “Spotlight” admits that even the outstanding and courageous Globe reporters and editors could have revealed the horror years before.

(There’s nothing magic about the year 1987. Similar news accounts appeared in news outlets throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Just one example: “The Roman Catholic Church in the US has been riven by a growing number of clergy sexual abuse cases. Two bishops have resigned amid such allegations and diocese have paid millions of dollars to abuse victims,” wrote Martha Sawyer Allen in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on June 26, 1993.)

“Spotlight” deservedly draws attention to the heroes of the Boston Globe: Marty Baron, Walter Robinson, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes, Ben Bradlee Jr., Matt Carroll and columnists Kevin Cullen, Adrian Walker and Eileen McNamara.

Steve Kurkjian of the Globe also deserves praise for his work exposing the crisis, both before and after the Spotlight team got involved. (Full disclosure: He “outed” my brother Kevin who is a predator priest and wrote a page one story about Donna Cox, a whistleblower who warned the Jefferson City bishop and his top aides about six predator priests, including then-Father Anthony O’Connell, who became the first US prelate to admit abusing boys early in 2002 after the Globe stories began to run. In the 1990s, Kurkjian also wrote the first story about Phil Saviano, who courageously refused to sign a gag order.)

But there are other journalists who sounded the alarm early and deserve our gratitude. Cannon is just one of them.

There’s Karen Henderson of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who wrote – also in 1987 – a series of articles about northeastern Ohio clerics who committed and concealed abuse. One noteworthy line: “Reports of child molesting priests have prompted the bishop of the Cleveland Catholic diocese to create a committee to advise him on ways to deal with the problem.” (Sound familiar?)

There’s Marilyn Vise of the Belleville News Democrat, who won an award from the Illinois Press Association and wrote dozens of stories exposing clergy sex crimes and cover ups in southern Illinois (including a ring of offenders who used female nicknames like “Tillie” and operated out of a shrine). (Over a three year period, more than ten percent of the diocese’s priests were publicly suspended because of credible abuse reports.)

There’s Judy Thomas of the Kansas City Star (who is still reporting on the crisis now), who wrote a controversial, unprecedented series in the 2000 about priests with AIDS.

And speaking of Kansas City, there’s the KC-based National Catholic Reporter, which, for nearly two decades wrote more about the scandal than virtually any news outlet on the planet.

And of course, there’s THE most pioneering and persistent investigative journalist to ever examine the on-going crisis: Jason Berry.

(And a personal “shout out” to Susan Samples, now of WOOD TV in Grand Rapids. In 1991, while she was still in college, Susan found and reported on the second victim of my perpetrator, Fr. John Whiteley.)

“By all means, I call down the wrath of God on the media, especially the Boston Globe,” Cardinal Bernard Law famously said.

Instead, let’s call out our gratitude to the media, especially these reporters who, years or even decades ago, had the courage and persistence to help expose clergy sex crimes and cover ups.