NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican
Sat Nov 14, 2015.
By Anne Constable
The New Mexican
When Adam Lee Ortega y Ortiz, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, first heard about Spotlight, a new movie about the Catholic Church’s cover-up of clergy sex abuse in Boston, he thought to himself, “Here we go again” and “why would you reopen wounds?”
Serious allegations of priestly misconduct first surfaced in New Mexico over two decades ago when a series of lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe accusing four priests of sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s.
The much-anticipated film by Thomas McCarthy, which opens Friday in Santa Fe, relates the story of child sex abuse by clergy and its impact on the faithful uncovered by the Boston Globe’s investigative team, which began looking into the local scandal in 2002 after Marty Baron, an editor with the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times, joined the Globe as its top editor.
In a recent letter, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, archbishop of Santa Fe, wrote to Church leaders and parishioners, warning them the film might trigger “horrific memories that continue to haunt and disturb” New Mexico victims and urging them to reach out to those who have been abused by clergy.
He had reason for concern. New Mexico was once an epicenter of sexual abuse by priests.
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