Posts Tagged The Boston Globe
‘Spotlight’ portrayal of sex abuse scandal is making the Catholic Church uncomfortable all over again / The Washington Post
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on November 10, 2015
“‘Spotlight,’ a new film about the Catholic clergy abuse scandal’s explosion in 2002, begs the question: How are things different in 2015?
“Dozens of U.S. church leaders have in the past few days been offering answers in the form of public statements, with some primarily focusing on the survivors and others casting the scandal as fully in the past and framing the church as the leader today in a society that hasn’t fully dealt with the problem.
“‘Spotlight,’ which began playing in U.S. cities Nov. 6, tells the story of Boston Globe investigative journalists who broke the story. (The Globe’s editor at the time was Marty Baron, now executive editor of The Washington Post)
“The range of views in the new statements – which follow a memo of talking points the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ sent to its dioceses in September — show the way the church still wrestles with how to tell its own story.”
By Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post — Click here to read the rest of this story.
The longtime advocates behind ‘Spotlight’ / WBUR-FM National Public Radio
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on November 5, 2015
Part two of our (WBUR-FM) ‘Spotlight’ series, in advance of the film’s release Friday (Nov. 6). The film ‘Spotlight’ tells a story that broke in 2002, but started years earlier. Before the Spotlight team investigated allegations of clergy sexual abuse, others — like attorney Mitchell Garabedian and Father Thomas Doyle — were already trying to get justice for the victims.” (Website story features photo of Doyle addressing the audience at the 2002 national Voice of the Faithful conference in Boston.)
By Radio Boston WBUR-FM, National Public Radio, Boston — Click here to listen to this story; click here for part one of this series; and click here to purchase Voice of the Faithful advance sale discount tickets to see “Spotlight” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, Massachusetts, on Friday, Nov. 13.
Circles make safe spaces for victims / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on October 5, 2015
There was the man who had been sexually abused as a boy by his priest. The priest who felt shunned within the Catholic Church after he spoke out against such abuse. The husband who had never told his wife about his assault decades earlier. The couple in their 80s who raised seven children in the church but finally, tearfully, decided to leave the pews.
“They’ve all been participants in a healing circle, a pilot program launched in Boston a year ago by the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), an organization of progressive Catholics formed in 2002 in response to the priest sex abuse scandal. Based on a restorative justice model, the circles allow those who have suffered harm to meet in a small group and tell their stories.
“This month, the organizers seized the occasion of Pope Francis’s US visit to try to win awareness of their project at the highest levels of the church. In a full-page ad in the National Catholic Reporter, VOTF issued an open invitation to the pope to attend a healing circle in New York during his Sept. 24-25 visit. ‘Welcome to the U.S. We invite you to join us in a Healing Circle. Time does not heal all wounds. Some wounds fester, like those the survivors of clergy sexual abuse suffer, and the wounds their families and communities experience. They are broken people, as is their Church,’ the ad read.”
By Bella English, The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Pope Francis’ balancing act / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Future of the Church, Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful on September 22, 2015
Will Pope Francis come to America as a healer or a divider? A bit of both, I guess. A healer, surely, by intent. But by situation, for some, a divider. This pope has a double orientation — as the first pope to have a respected predecessor, with a loyal following, living next door to him; and as the first pope from the New World, with a populist instinct and gift. I think of him as a kind of Scarlet Pimpernel operating behind enemy lines. Well, not quite enemy lines, but alien divides. For there are two Catholic churches now, and each is in some degree alien to the other. One, the Second Vatican Council church, the people of God, is people-centered. The other, the church of the hierarchy, is pope-centered.”
By Garry Wills, The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this commentary.
Pope Francis’ U.S. visit spawns anxiety in clergy abuse victims / the Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Voice of the Faithful on September 21, 2015
The news earlier this year that Pope Francis was coming to America hit Robert Costello “like a punch in the gut,” and as a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in the 1960s and ’70s, he is dreading the coming tsunami of media coverage of the papal visit.
“It has started already. At his job at Target, the pope’s face looks out from publications stacked in the magazine rack. ‘I have to stare at them at work,’ he said in a Globe interview. ‘It’s unsettling.’
“For many survivors, the hype around Francis’ visit feels misplaced, for they believe the pope has not done enough to bring transparency to the church and accountability to abusers and those who sheltered them.”
By Mark Arsenault, The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.
In search of Cardinal Bernard Law / WGBH-FM
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on August 5, 2015
When Bernard Cardinal Law, Archbishop of Boston, fled to the Vatican in 2002, he left behind a trail of human and financial wreckage: 550 victims abused by parish priests and court judgments that eventually topped $85 million. Meanwhile, Law was assigned a comfortable post in Rome, where he disappeared from the headlines.”
“Meanwhile, Law was assigned a comfortable post in Rome, where he disappeared from the headlines.
“Law led America’s fourth-largest archdiocese for 18 years. His reputation as a public figure peaked during Boston’s court-ordered school desegregation crisis, when the cardinal emerged as a steadying voice of sanity.
“However, as his role as the architect of the abuse cover-up emerged, first in the Boston Phoenix, then in the Boston Globe, Law was transformed into a pariah. With permission from Pope John Paul II, he resigned in 2002 ahead of the mandatory age of 75. Law was subsequently appointed head of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the most significant basilicas in Rome. He retired from that post in 2011. Where is he now? What has he been doing since then?”
By Phillip Martin, WGBH-FM — Click here to read and hear the rest of this story.
Milwaukee archdiocese settles for $21 million with abuse victims / Associated Press in The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on August 4, 2015
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Tuesday (Aug. 4) that it will pay $21 million to more than 300 victims of clergy abuse in a settlement that would end a four-year bankruptcy proceeding.
“The proposed deal, which will be part of a reorganization plan submitted to a bankruptcy court later this month, was to be reviewed by a judge overseeing the case at a Nov. 9 hearing. Archbishop Jerome Listeki called the settlement a ‘new Pentecost.’
“’Today, we turn the page on a terrible part of our history and we embark on a new road lined with hope, forgiveness and love,’ Listecki said in a statement …
“Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents 350 of the approximately 570 people with bankruptcy claims, criticized the archdiocese for trying to have hundreds of claims thrown out of court before a November bankruptcy hearing. As a result, the creditors’ committee was forced to prevent the case from being drawn out any longer, Anderson said.”
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press, in The Boston Globe — Click here to read the rest of this story.
“Spotlight” trailer previews movie about The Boston Globe clergy sexual abuse investigation
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on July 31, 2015
A trailer was released this week for the “Spotlight” movie that follows The Boston Globe’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse of children in the Boston Archdiocese in the early 2000s. The Globe’s Spotlight Team stories led to a 2003 Pulitzer Prize and broke open the abuse scandal in the Church.
Revelations from the Globe’s stories helped fuel the anger, disappointment, and frustration that contributed the growth of Voice of the Faithful. The movie premieres at several film festivals later this summer and is scheduled for wide release toward the end of November.
If you cannot see the video link above or have trouble with the link, click here.
Victims’ advocates hope pope looks into Newark archbishop / Associated Press – Cruxnow.com
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful on July 30, 2015
Priests, nuns, and canon lawyers who advocate for molestation victims urged Pope Francis on Wednesday (July 29) to use the new Vatican tribunal he formed on negligent bishops to investigate the archbishop of Newark, who has long been accused of sheltering abusive priests.”
“The plea comes as Francis prepares for his first visit to the United States in September, a trip that will take place against the backdrop of the broad unfinished business of the molestation scandal. The crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one pedophile priest in the Archdiocese of Boston before spreading nationwide, then engulfing the Roman Catholic Church.
“The advocates, who call themselves the Catholic Whistleblowers, said they will present evidence to the Vatican that Archbishop John Myers has been persistently hostile toward people who come forward with abuse allegations, and had left guilty clerics in parishes in the Newark Archdiocese and in his post as bishop of Peoria, Ill.”
By Rachel Zoll, Associated Press, on Cruxnow.com — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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