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“truth Prevails” – Jan Hus

By Jan Hus
Phil Saviano
February 4, 2016

http://www.philsaviano.com/

“Saviano is what we don’t see enough of in this tragic story; a true survivor, a living, inspiring, example of a man who’s struggled to come to terms with what happened, and triumphed.”

Phil Saviano’s Bio

Like most social movements, the clergy abuse survivors’ movement began with years of little-noticed efforts by a few pioneers. In Boston, MA, the trailblazer was Phil Saviano. After going public about his abuse in a 1992 Boston Globe story, he spent the next decade immersed in volunteer work for the cause. In spring of 1997, he established the first New England chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. While supporting other victims, he used the news media to get the word out about the hidden problem of Catholic clergy abuse. Saviano’s efforts culminated in his collaboration with the Boston Globe Spotlight Investigation team. Its 2002 expose led to the resignation of Boston’s Cardinal Law, a man once said to be the most influential cardinal in America. The investigative series ignited a worldwide crisis for the Roman Catholic Church.

Open Road Films acclaimed movie “Spotlight,” which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the newspaper’s investigation, includes scenes with Saviano’s character, played by New York actor Neal Huff.

Phil often comes across as being laid-back and self-effacing. Look deeper, though, and you will find that he has a remarkable stamina and an ability to strive and thrive, both physically and emotionally, despite experiences that could derail others.

At the time that Phil first went public with the story of his childhood abuse, he was grappling with a serious illness that came close to bringing him down. Nevertheless, one morning, a week before Christmas 1992, he was leafing through the pages of the Boston Globe. Phil discovered with a shock, that Fr. David Holley, the same priest who molested him in Massachusetts in the 1960s, was accused of assaulting children in Texas in the 1970s and in New Mexico in the 1980s. He reached out to those men out west and lent support to their allegations by going public about his own abuse. In that emotional blizzard of a weekend in December 1992, Phil was reborn as an activist.

“In that emotional blizzard of a weekend, Phil was reborn as an activist”. His story made the front page of the Boston Globe and was picked up in other cities across the country where Holley had been assigned. Then, in February 1993, Phil and the Holley story made the front page of USAToday. Soon after, the priest was indicted on charges in New Mexico, and later sentenced to 275 years in prison, the longest ever given to a Catholic priest sex offender.

Phil kept plugging away, trying to get a grip on the controversial issue he was now publicly immersed in. “Driven” would be one word to describe Phil’s commitment. In those years before the Internet, he spent many nights in the Boston College library, reading newspaper microfilm, searching for accounts of abuse cases in other parts of the country. He started collecting stories, building files, talking to other victims about their experiences. He bought New Orleans investigative reporter Jason Berry’s book, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation,” and psychologist Richard Sipe’s, “Sex, Priests and Power,” and devoured them. He did what was right and hard, not looking for public accolades or appreciation. Phil was just trying to sort out who knew what when, about Fr. Holley and about other priests, and trying to understand why so few people had taken a stand to stop the abuse.

He kept wondering, how could this happen? How was David Holley able to victimize so many kids in so many parishes, over so many years? When the response from Worcester Diocese officials was to deny any knowledge of problems with the priest, and to refuse counseling for the victims, Phil joined with 3 other Worcester victims and filed suit to gain access to the priest’s records. This was one of the very first abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church to be filed in Boston courts. Soon Phil had copies of letters proving that at least six bishops in four states knew that Fr. Holley was a child molester. In fact, the priest was caught with kids so many times that he was sent to four different, church-run treatment centers.

At times, Phil felt alone, overwhelmed, repelled and angry. He heard from doubters and took more than his share of criticism. Some people thought he had brought a scandal to his hometown. Childhood friends, even those who had also been assaulted by the priest, denied their own experiences, and refused to lend their voices in support of his own. People he respected greatly advised him to put all this sordid stuff aside, focus on his health, and try to enjoy life.

But then came a turning point. Unable to bring his lawsuit to trial, the diocese presented him with a settlement agreement that had strict confidentiality requirements. This was standard procedure, his lawyer told him. “Everybody signs these agreements.” But Phil was not everybody, and he had learned too much about the way the Church operates and puts kids at risk. So he fought back, telling his lawyer, “I’m not keeping the Church’s secrets for them!”

That’s when Phil reached out to SNAP for the first time. It was Friday, November 3, 1995 when he got David Clohessy, SNAP’s Executive Director, on the line. Phil remembers the relief of speaking with a man who’d had similar childhood experiences, knew a heck of a lot more about the issue than Phil did, and was willing to use his resources and connections to help out. It led to a Boston Globe story with a headline that was predictive of Phil’s future work, “He Refuses To Be Silent.”

“He Refuses To Be Silent”.

Boston Globe story headline

Six months later, Phil achieved his goal. He settled his case with not a single confidentiality restriction. He was the first person in Massachusetts to do so. Shortly afterwards, he received a note from Jason Berry saying, “Congratulations on retaining your constitutional right of free speech.”

His settlement amount from the Worcester Diocese was $12,500, of which he received $5,400 after lawyer’s expenses. But — in terms of being able to speak his mind, and share what he knew with other victims and with news reporters, Phil felt like a wealthy man.

By the spring of 1997, Phil’s health was on the rebound. He decided to formalize his outreach to other victims. He took what he had learned about the Catholic child abuse problem, and his ability to speak about it, and set up the first New England chapter of SNAP. Over the next few years, he became the public face and voice of other victims who were not yet ready, or able, to speak for themselves.

Phil made repeated efforts to get the news media to take a closer look at the issue, pointing out to them that there were far more priest abusers than anyone realized, that bishops were in on the cover-up, and that there were both male and female victims. He pitched investigative stories to the Globe, the Boston Herald, the Associated Press, Time magazine, ABC News 20/20 program. The reporters and editors were either not yet ready, or not able, to take him seriously.

So in August of 2001, when the Boston Globe’s investigative team came calling, they found a guy who was eager to talk and share with them his lists of abusive priests from two dioceses, his treasure trove of discovery documents signed by bishops in several states, his familiarity with the work of Jason Berry, Richard Sipe and Thomas Doyle. What’s more, he knew over 80 victims, and thought that many of them would be willing to reveal their childhood experiences to the Globe.

Phil was sworn to secrecy by the Spotlight team, but he collaborated with them for the next several months, sharing his knowledge of such notorious Boston abusers as Paul Shanley, Monsignor Fred Ryan, Ronald Pacquin, Paul Mahan and others. He gave them names of 13 Boston priests, in addition to the two the team already knew about, Frs. Geoghan and Burns.

The Globe took legal action to unseal civil suit documents in the Boston Archdiocese. The judge agreed. The cases were opened. And the secrets he knew were out there began to be unearthed. The rest, as they say, is history. What was a hushed little church problem quickly morphed into a thunderous, global Catholic crisis.

While all this was unfolding in secrecy, Phil had one more task ahead of him. Knowing that the story was going to be big, and concerned that SNAP then had just a handful of other support chapters around the country, Phil took it upon himself to take over SNAP’s current website. He expanded it greatly, and turned it into a valuable source of news, educational materials, and support that victims could easily access, no matter here they lived.

In early 2002, when the Globe’s reporting caused an uproar in Boston and lit a fire under investigative reporters in many, many other dioceses across the country, that website was SNAP’s open door to the world. Through the site, thousands of victims were able to connect with SNAP, get informed, and become a part of the movement. Later, he added a discussion board that he ran with help from Marigrace Labella in North Carolina. For a few years, before there was social media like Facebook, that discussion board was so popular it was being scoured for details by survivors, reporters, and even prosecutors.

In 2003, Phil was named a Boston Local Hero by the Boston Phoenix newspaper.

Phil Saviano comes from a family background that is Catholic on both sides — Italian and Czechoslovakian. Over the course of many trips to Prague and Slovakia, he learned about the great Czech national and religious hero, Jan Hus. A historic figure who Phil feels some affinity with, Hus was a 15th century Catholic priest who made a name for himself by preaching against church corruption. He also got himself into a lot of trouble. In 1415, he was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. A hundred-year-old monument to Jan Hus is now a focal point of Prague’s historic Old Town Square. (See pictures in the Gallery section). Inscribed in the base is a quote from Hus, in Czech, reading “Pravda Vitezi.” It translates in English as “Truth Prevails.” In the issue of Catholic clergy child sex abuse, once hidden for many decades, the truth certainly has prevailed.

 

 

 

 

 




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