Episode 24: The Spotlight Case
The Boston Spotlight case, named after the Boston Globe’s investigative spotlight division, started with a tip from a victim reporting sexual abuse and molestation at the hands of a priest. This tip led to the investigation and uncovering of a massive sex abuse scandal throughout the Catholic Church system in the greater Boston Area. The articles for the investigation were published in early 2002, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003.
A priest by the name of Father John J. Geoghan spent three decades at six total parishes in Boston, committing acts of rape, molestation and sexual abuse against children at each one. The majority of his victims were elementary school aged boys, the youngest being just four years old. Whenever abuse allegations and accusations would be made, the archdiocese would sweep them under the rug until they could no longer be ignored, and then transfer the offender to a different parish where the cycle would begin again.
Father Geoghan had already been through four different parishes when in 1980 in Jamaica Plain, he was accused of molesting seven boys from the same extended family. He had earned the trust of the single mother and would babysit these children, bathing them and tucking them into bed. It was later revealed that he would perform oral sex on the children, fondling them and having them fondle his genitals while he prayed. The archdiocese stated that this was “not a serious problem”, and he was allowed to relocate to another parish.
In 1984, Cardinal Bernard F. Law began his first year in Boston and knew of the abuse at the hands of Geoghan and several other priests in the area, but rather than bring the abuse to the attention of law enforcement, he continued to conceal and transfer the offenders, even threatening to transfer anyone that spoke against it out of the region. Priests would sometimes be sent to institutions for examination and given medical clearance by doctors who believed that pedophilia could be “rehabilitated”, and this documentation was used to defend priests returning to work where they would almost immediately begin sexually abusing children again. Geoghan stayed at these institutions several times.
A key part of the investigation was an accusation made by Patrick McSorely, who in 1986 at just 12 years old was targeted and molested by Father Geoghan. Geoghan had noticed McSorely’s mother was struggling with mental illness as well as with the suicide of her husband, and he befriended the woman to earn her trust. Once Geoghan was entrusted with her child, he would take Patrick out to ice cream. Patrick reported that on the drive back home, Geoghan would molest him while masturbating and then make him promise to keep it a secret. Many of Geoghan’s other victims reported to the Spotlight team that he would swear them to secrecy by telling them what had happened was a confessional and had to stay between them and God.
The Spotlight investigation revealed a shocking amount of abuse at the hands of Father Geoghan and many other priests in the Boston area. The investigation was met with some difficulty when the team discovered that many of the documents they needed were sealed by the archdiocese, but their motion to make these documents public was granted and they were released on January 26, 2002. These documents revealed that the archdiocese had been settling with families of children who were raped and molested, paying almost $10 million to 50 families of Geoghan’s victims in 1997 alone. Over the last decade, the archdiocese had settled abuse claims made against 70 total priests.
Within two years of the first of 800 articles from the 2002 Spotlight investigation being released on the sex abuse scandal, Cardinal Bernard Law had resigned, 150 priests in Boston were accused of sexual assault, over 500 victims had come forward to file abuse claims, and donations to the archdiocese had plummeted. The articles had a nationwide impact, with over 450 priests and 5 bishops resigning as a result of abuse claims, and legislation was passed in several states including Massachusetts that obligated clergy to report any knowledge of child sex abuse to civil authorities.
In 2015, the movie Spotlight was released, and although it is dramatized it is based on this case and shows the process and struggles the investigative team had to go through to obtain sealed information, as well as the shock when the investigation continued to get bigger.
Image sources:
thebostonpilot.com - “Newspapers examine U.S bishop’s response to abuse allegations”
IMDb - “Spotlight”