After Spotlight was released in 2015, the name Richard Sipe exploded from a name well-known in the clergy sexual abuse reform world to one that was integral in the plot of a blockbuster film.
Sipe was one of the most influential figures in breaking down the floodgates of holding the Catholic Church accountable for the abuse and cover-up of children. Sipe died on August 8, 2018, of multiple organ failure in La Jolla, California, at the age of 85.
Yet even at 85, he was still taking on new cases to help survivors of child sexual abuse.
One of his brothers, John Sipe, said Richard “fought an uphill battle is whole life.”
Sipe’s largest, but by no means singular, contribution to the world of clergy sexual abuse was his mammoth report, published in 1990, detailing the secret world of sexual misconduct within the Catholic Church.
His most bombshell findings were that,…
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