TEXAS/NEW MEXICO
El Paso Times
Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times November 22, 2015
Victims of a predatory priest who served in El Paso and Alamogordo helped provide the impetus for the Boston Globe investigation that revealed a widespread cover-up by the Catholic Church highlighted by the movie “Spotlight.”
The film’s all-star cast focuses on the newspaper’s investigation “Spotlight Investigation: Abuse in the Catholic Church,” which garnered the daily a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The new movie by Open Road Films is showing in theaters across El Paso and the nation.
Robert J. Curtis and Phil Saviano were both victimized by the Rev. David A. Holley, who was considered one of the most notorious sexual predators who wore the cloth.
“It was estimated that Holley had molested over 32 boys during his three years as a parish priest at St. Jude’s Mission in Alamogordo,” Curtis said. In 1972, St. Jude’s was part of the El Paso Catholic Diocese.
Curtis, then 11 years old, was a paperboy for the El Paso Times in Alamogordo when Holley zeroed in on him.
“He lived down the street from me, and across the street from the school and church,” Curtis said. “When I asked him during his sentencing hearing why he picked me, he said because ‘it was convenient.’ I had to walk in front of his house every day.”
Curtis said other victims of Holley in Alamogordo had mentioned to him that a mysterious man from El Paso traveled to Alamogordo to photograph Holley’s victims. “I don’t remember that, but others said they did,” Curtis said.
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