UNITED STATES
Minnesota Public Radio
Bob Collins April 18, 2017
If not for people like Joe Crowley, the Catholic Church’s chronic problem of sexual abuse might never have found its believers.
Crowley was [edit] among the the first victims to come forward publicly when the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team resisted all the pressure the Boston Archdiocese could muster to stop the investigation.
“Joe took an incredible risk coming forward,” said Barbara Dorris, national managing director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “And when one survivor does it, it’s like giving the rest of the survivors permission to tell. We’ll never know how many people came forward because Joe did, and how many people had hope because Joe did it.”
Dorris, who noted that some clergy sexual abuse victims have committed suicide, added of Mr. Crowley: “He’s probably saved lives.”
He suffered from alcoholism, depression, anger, and unemployment, a familiar trajectory for the victims of priests, the Globe says.
He was a Boston College High School student when a priest raped him, then passed him on to other priests.
Ultimately, people began to believe what Crowley, played by Michael Cyril Creighton in Spotlight, courageously tried to tell them through the Globe’s team of reporters.
He died on Sunday.
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