MASSACHUSETTS
Telegram & Gazette
By Richard Duckett
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Nov. 4, 2015
Although the movie “Spotlight” doesn’t officially open in Boston until Friday, Phil Saviano has already seen it four times.
The first occasion was a private screening for victims of child molestation by Roman Catholic priests who are depicted in the film. The movie dramatizes the Boston Globe “Spotlight” team investigation into abuse in the Catholic Church that won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. Mr. Saviano, who grew up in East Douglas, is played by actor Neal Huff.
“Each time I saw it I had a stronger emotional reaction,” Mr. Saviano said. At the red carpet Boston premiere last week, “There were tears running down my cheeks. I was hoping most people wouldn’t see me,” he said. By the same token, “There’s a lot going on in the film, a lot of detail. I was very pleased.”
Mr. Saviano was molested by the late Rev. David A. Holley of St. Denis parish in East Douglas over the course of months in 1964 and 1965 when Mr. Saviano was 11 and 12 years old. Now 63 and living in Roslindale, Mr. Saviano is a founder of the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
In 2001, he met with reporters of the Spotlight team and was “a key reason why the team decided to delve into this scandal in the first place,” said David Clohessy, national director of SNAP.
“They knew of two priests,” Mr. Saviano recalled. “I went in with a list of 13 from Boston and 14 from Worcester (Catholic dioceses).”
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