Did Pope Francis Pick Philly over Beantown to Avoid the Abuse "Spotlight'?

WGBH
September 14, 2015

http://wgbhnews.org/post/did-pope-francis-pick-philly-over-beantown-avoid-abuse-spotlight

Pope Francis arrives aboard of the popemobile to celebrate mass in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, July 12, 2015.

It was January 2002 when the Boston Globe’s spotlight team broke the stunning news about widespread sexual abuse in the Catholic Church — dozens of priests accused of molesting children, and rather than confront the problem, the church instead moved those priests from parish to parish, hiding their pasts from unsuspecting new victims.

James Porter, Paul Shanley and John Geoghan were three priests who were said to have had as many as 100 victims each — victims whose parents complained to the Boston Archdiocese. At the time, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law admitted he knew John Geoghan had been accused of molesting children, saying:

“I was aware of the case. I was aware of the way the case was being handled. I was aware of the advice that was being given… and as I have indicated before — in retrospect — mistakes were made … I’ve acknowledged that the policy was flawed.”

And that flawed policy, whether from the Boston Archdiocese or from the highest reaches of the Vatican, cost the once beloved Cardinal his job, his dignity and the respect of a community he once loved. Now almost 13 years after his departure, that sordid story is about to hit the silver screen. "Spotlight," the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning reporting on the church clergy sex abuse scandal, debuts this fall and is getting a lot of attention on the film festival scene right now.

If Pope Francis had chosen Boston over Philadelphia — and we know Boston mayor Marty Walsh extended an invitation — the renewed attention to the sex abuse scandal and the likelihood that abuse victims might want a special audience could have cast a pall over the celebratory event and a focus on a Pope with fresher and more open ideas. Not that Pope Francis will be allowed to ignore the issue completely, as Philadelphia had its share of predatory priests, but let’s just say, it would not be in the “spotlight.”