Digging Deep into Betrayal An overview into the crisis of the Catholic Church

A group of reporters from the Boston Globe investigative team, Spotlight, uncovered the many sexual abuse cases involving thousands and hundreds of priests in the Boston archdiocese. Based on one of the findings found concerning one man, Father Geoghan, uncovered hundreds of pedophilic church clergy in the church community. The first time Father Geoghan was noticed as pedophilic was when he was with Frank Leary, a thirteen year old boy. During one of the “visits” a priest caught Geoghan in the act and was quickly angry. Despite the priest’s anger, the priest failed to report the assault.

Since then, many other sexual assault cases, have been covered up by the church. After sending Geoghan to rehab for the misconduct, the rehab center simply stated that “We judge Father Geoghan to be clinically safe to resume his pastoral ministry after observation, evaluation, and treatment here for three months, the probability that he would sexually act out again is quite low” (56). Quickly after, Archbishop Bernard F. Law received a letter from Margaret Gallant having evidence that Geoghan was a child molester. Law wanted to keep Geoghan in the ministry, Law sent Geoghan to rehab once again. But this time, Law paid the victims of the family and had the families sign a consent waiver forcing them to keep their silence. Law also had families do this in order to avoid being kicked out of the church. None of the assaults, victims, or pedophilic clergy were ever known to the public due to it all being covered up and hid by the church. After the church was exposed by Spotlight, thousands of priests were exposed by all of the legal papers found under the court sealed documents. In the end, Geoghan was sent to jail on child sex abuse charges. While Law no longer served as the Archbishop of Boston, he now resides as a bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church.