Bigots: Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha
and Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory

It took over seven years, but he finally got the press conference he always craved.

Back in 2019 (!), we reported how Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha was among several AGs across the country seeking to replicate the public relations triumph that Pennsylvania's AG Josh Shapiro garnered in 2018 with his blockbuster "grand jury report" that gained international attention.

Well, Neronha's day in the sun finally came to pass last week when he released a 284-page tome (pdf) claiming to chronicle abuse by priests in his state in the Diocese of Providence. But to say that Neronha's report was underwhelming would be an overstatement.

Nothing new in the report

Even by Neronha's own admission, his office scoured records dating back "three-quarters of a century" to 1950, when Harry S. Truman was President and Bing Crosby still ruled the charts. In other words, this was a history report by any standard.

Neronha surprisingly admits that "clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island appears to have peaked in the 1960s and 1970s and to have declined since" and that "no credibly accused abuser priest is currently serving in active ministry in the Diocese of Providence." And nearly 97% of alleged abuse occurred between 1950 to 1997, and 42% before 1972.

But most notably, he admits that of the 75 accused priests listed in the report, 64, or 85%, were deceased and thus no longer around to defend themselves. And if that important tidbit were not enough, Neronha then had the gall to fault the Diocese of Providence for both not investigating claims against long-dead priests but also for "destroying confidential files following priests' deaths unless there was pending litigation involving the priests."

Imagine that. The diocese did not investigate cases in which the principle actor is already dead, and then it destroyed personnel records of dead employees just like very other institution on the planet, which it is allowed to do under the law. Powerful stuff, Pete.

But here comes the Boston Globe

But leave it to the nation's premier anti-Catholic newspaper, The Boston Globe, to treat Neronha's report as if it were on par with the Apollo Moon landing.

The Globe naturally published no less than six items about Neronha's report over a period of just a few days, and that does not include the paper's glowing profile of Neronha just days after the report.

The Globe, in particular, trumpeted Neronha's claims about "credible allegations" against a priest named Rev. Francis Santilli. But what neither Neronha nor the Globe told the public was that the diocese thoroughly investigated the claims against Santilli years ago and found them not credible, even by the diocese's very lenient standards.

Pushing back

While this is just a same-old, tired attack on the Catholic Church, we want to give kudos to Bishop Bruce Lewandowski of the Diocese of Providence for responding to AG Neronha's bogus report.

Lewandowski reminded the public that the diocese voluntarily agreed to give Neronha all of its personnel files in the name of transparency, and "any view that there is an on-going crisis within this diocese which requires urgent intervention is debunked by the fact that the Report took nearly seven years to be publicly released." Boom.

Lewandowski also noted, "The Report itself reveals no evidence of recent child sexual abuse by clergy, no credible accusations against those in ministry today, and no instances of the diocese's failure to meet its legal reporting obligations." And the diocese added, "the Report itself states that it 'did not produce evidence of any recent child sexual abuse by clergy'." Checkmate.

Maybe the next time some publicity-hungry attorney general goes knocking on the door of a chancery to see a diocese's personnel files, the bishop should tell the guy to take a hike.

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Recommended reading:
- 'Diocese of Providence Response to the Attorney General Report' by Bishop Bruce Lewandowski
- 'Two wrongs don't make a right: Denying due process to accused clergy is not how to mend mistakes' (23 Feb 2026) by Fr. Thomas Kocik (Substack)
- 'Where the Dallas Charter Went Wrong' (23 Feb 2026) by Michael J. Mazza (First Things)

Another priest falsely accused: Rev. Msgr. Francis V. Strahan of the Archdiocese of Boston

The claims were ludicrous from the beginning. Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan (Massachusetts) and an anonymous accuser wanted the public to suspend all common sense and somehow believe that Rev. Msgr. Francis V. Strahan of the Archdiocese of Boston randomly sexually assaulted an altar boy in an open church shortly before a Mass over 15 years ago despite the fact that the priest had an unblemished record for over 60 years.

Msgr. Strahan was ordained when Dwight Eisenhower was President, yet we were asked to believe that he waited until the vigorous age of 73 in 2006 to start sexually assaulting altar boys in broad daylight. Msgr. Strahan is now 90 years old and, again, has never had any other accusations against him.

When publicity-hungry D.A. Ryan announced her indictment against Msgr. Strahan last year, the Boston Globe was sure to prominently promote the story on its web site. In what has become a standard practice in the Globe when it reports about the Catholic Church, angry subscribers then chimed in with a barrage of anti-Catholic screeds in the story's comments section. Among the over 100 comments:

• "The catholic church is the largest child rape cult in world history."
• "Catholics defend pedophiles like normal people would defend children."
• "The whole catholic church is irredeemably corrupt, and has been for over a millennia."
• "They're all either pedophiles or pedophile protectors."

(When an exasperated reader finally suggested that the Globe close the comments on the story because they were getting out of hand, another reader retorted, "Why? Are they mean to your child rape club by telling the truth?" Classy stuff.)

A fraud goes bust, and the Globe naturally goes silent

But, lo and behold, last week law enforcement dropped the charges against Msgr. Strahan after the accuser claimed that his "PTSD symptoms have increased" and he would no longer be willing to testify in court. Uh-huh. Having followed the issue for many years now, we know it is a common tactic for an accuser to claim some sort of mental condition as a way to avoid public scrutiny of a phony claim.

Yet when the charges were dropped against Msgr. Strahan, the Globe did not feel it worthy to report the story at all. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Absolutely shameful but in keeping with past practice.

An anti-Catholic agenda continues

Thank you to C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts for this story. And when it comes to the Globe, Doyle was spot-on when he said earlier this year:

"No one should believe that the media campaign against the Catholic Church twenty years ago was motivated by a desire to protect children … For the Globe and the rest of the Boston media, coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church always had just one purpose — discrediting, neutralizing and destroying the public influence of an institution they regarded as a political, cultural and ideological enemy."

In other words, there is no mystery as to why the Globe did not report Strahan being cleared. It didn't fit the paper's political agenda.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "False Accusations Against Catholic Priests Are Now At Epic Proportions" (May 2019)
- The book: The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church by David F. Pierre, Jr. (Amazon.com)
- The book: Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church by David F. Pierre, Jr. (Amazon.com)

Who's laughing now? Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry and lawyer Jeremy Blackowicz

I guess we struck a nerve.

Shortly after publishing our post last week critical of The Boston Globe for unfairly targeting the Church yet again, a legal representative of the Globe contacted our web hosting company demanding that it remove our story. They claimed that we were "illegally using the Boston Globe Media Partners name in their article and naming our client" and that we could be committing strange "internet crimes."

Of course the Globe's claims were laughable, as we were not using their trademark or intellectual property but merely criticizing them. There was absolutely nothing "illegal" about our post. Our site was taken offline for about an hour, but thankfully our hosting company soon saw the Globe's missive for what it was: an attempt to bully and silence us into not criticizing a multimillion dollar media company. The Globe's problem with us was "a simple free speech issue, which we support," as a representative of our hosting company remarked.

[*Click to read the Globe's bully message yourself*]

According to a link within the message sent by the Globe, a lawyer named Jeremy Blackowicz at Day Pitney LLP oversees the trademarks of the Globe and presumably wrote the note attempting to silence us.

Well, we have a message for Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry and Blackowicz: You know what you are doing is wrong, both legally and morally. You do not scare us, and you will not silence us. We won't back down to bigots and bullies.

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Further reading:

- FLASHBACK: In 1978, the Boston Globe Promoted Decriminalizing Teenage Prostitution (Feb. 2018)

- Bigotry Alert: After Publishing the Names of Priests Merely Accused of Abuse For Years, Boston Globe Refuses to Name Sex Abusers in Its Own Offices (Dec. 2017)

- 'Nothing to See Here!': Investigation Finds 15 Mass. Educators Each Year Suspended For Sex Abuse, Boston Globe In Hiding (Nov. 2015)

- 'Spotlight' Neglects to Mention the Boston Globe’s Own Long History of Rank Hypocrisy on the Issue of the Sexual Abuse of Minors (Nov. 2015)

- 'Spotlight' EXPOSED: The Definitive Movie Review (Nov. 2015)

- The book: Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church by David F. Pierre, Jr. (Amazon.com)

According to the Boston Globe, one of these is allowed to talk with children about sex.
Can you guess which one?

Angry Church haters posing as journalists (l to r):
Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry, Editor Brian McGrory,
Writer Amanda Milkovits, and 'Audience Engagement Editor' Teresa Hanafin

Of course for The Boston Globe, it's never really been about the actual abuse of children but about using the issue of sex abuse to attack the Church for opposing its left-wing views on sexuality. Witness yet again:

In recent years, the Globe has proudly promoted drag queen story hours for toddlers and even endorsed sexually oriented books aimed at young children. Indeed, the Boston Globe has a very long and well-established history of vociferously promoting the sexualization of children. (Many more links below.)

If intimate discussions with kindergartners about sex is your thing, then the Boston Globe has your back.

Misstating the Nature of the Sacrament of Confession

However, when a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Providence was alleged to have asked "inappropriate questions" to teenagers within the Sacrament of Confession, the Globe goes nuts alerting its readers that Armageddon is upon us. (Note to the Boston Globe: The topic of sex in the Confessional is not at all unusual. Sexual sins, even among teenagers, are common, and the priest's remarks were very likely either misconstrued or misunderstood by the teens.)

So, according to the Boston Globe, drag queens and sex manuals for toddlers are great, but talk of sex in the Confessional is a no-go. Got it?

The Globe's mouthpieces to create the story

Of course, there is no real story or news here of interest to its readers, so the Globe had to make one up by looking for quotes from bigots and wackos. Writer Amanda Milkovits predictably turned to the lawyer-funded hate group SNAP, who itself has an ugly record of corruption, scandals, false accusations against priests, and has exploited abuse victims all along the way. Without citing any support for its claim, the SNAP mouthpiece alleged that any questions about sex by a priest during Confession was "grooming behavior."

But it gets worse. In another article about the beleaguered priest, Milkovits exploited an agitated man who stood out on a sidewalk with a sign protesting the Church. This unfortunate soul claims that he was sexually abused as an infant, even though he admits he "didn't remember anything," according to the article, and his abuse had nothing to do with any Catholic priest. But the guy claims to have been "triggered" by the story that a priest might have spoken "inappropriately" with teens in the Confessional. Milkovits should be ashamed of herself for exploiting such a person just to fill up a weak story.

And in the paper's Comments section, the Globe really let the Church have it by allowing scores of hate-filled comments from their subscribers, comments which the paper would never allow if they were directed at any other faith. Here is a small sampling:

● "The Catholic clergy are not even real Christians. They are wretched sinners and pedophiles or pedophile sympathizers."

● "Disgusting. Boycott this cult."

● "The RCC has to be the largest, most far-flung criminal organization in the world."

● "The Catholic Church has always been evil, filled with pedophiles, deceitful and protective of its own."

● "Defending pedophile factories that have abused kids for centuries is reprehensible. Anyone still involved with the cathoHOLIC church should be ashamed."

● "Never let your children attend a Catholic Church !!!"

● "The poison is deep in the Church's teachings about human sexuality, and in its formation of priests. Sexual abuse, and sexual illness (for lack of a better term) is a feature, not a bug. Avoid."

Would the Globe allow such vitriol directed at Judaism? Islam? Buddhism? Of course not.

But if you are a faithful Catholic, be assured that the Globe hates you. There is sadly no other way to state it.

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Further reading:

- FLASHBACK: In 1978, the Boston Globe Promoted Decriminalizing Teenage Prostitution (Feb. 2018)

- Bigotry Alert: After Publishing the Names of Priests Merely Accused of Abuse For Years, Boston Globe Refuses to Name Sex Abusers in Its Own Offices (Dec. 2017)

- 'Nothing to See Here!': Investigation Finds 15 Mass. Educators Each Year Suspended For Sex Abuse, Boston Globe In Hiding (Nov. 2015)

- 'Spotlight' Neglects to Mention the Boston Globe’s Own Long History of Rank Hypocrisy on the Issue of the Sexual Abuse of Minors (Nov. 2015)

- 'Spotlight' EXPOSED: The Definitive Movie Review (Nov. 2015)

- Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church by David F. Pierre, Jr. (Amazon.com)

Dazed and confused: Lehman College's Eileen Markey, writing for America magazine

In January of 2002, as its 'Spotlight Team' carpet-bombing campaign against the Catholic Church reached a fever pitch, the Boston Globe published a splashy front-page article claiming that when a concerned woman wrote to Cardinal Bernard Law in 1984 that notorious priest John Geoghan had molested boys in her extended family, Law did nothing. "The records do not contain any evidence that Law replied to [the woman]," the Globe soberly informed its readers.

Naturally, other media then quickly pounced upon the story and repeated it far and wide, and the story of Cardinal Law's callousness towards victims continues to this day.

It turns out, however, that the Globe's story was completely false. Cardinal Law did indeed reply to the woman, and, in fact, he immediately removed Geoghan from his current assignment, citing the woman's letter as an impetus for doing so. (Read Law's reply letter for yourself (jpg).)

And to make matters worse, to this very day, the Globe has never issued a correction for its indisputable error and defamation against Cardinal Law.

An agenda exposed

Anti-Catholic bigot Marty Baron

Nowhere does Markey address the many inaccuracies, exaggerations, and dowright lies told by the Globe in its 'Spotlight' series against the Church.

What goofy Ms. Markey does not seem to grasp is that the Globe's series had nothing to do with sex abuse and everything to do with its well-established raw hatred for the Catholic Church.

Yes, many decades ago criminal priests committed revolting abuse against minors. But the point of the 'Spotlight' series was not to rid the Church of corruption – as indeed nearly all of the cases of abusive priests were already by 2002 a thing of the past – but to silence the Church in the ongoing culture wars.

The Church had to be silenced by publicizing scandal in its own ranks so that the Globe's promotion of the Sexual Revolution could advance unimpeded.

The Globe's long history of hypocrisy and hate

As we have exhaustively chronicled, the Boston Globe's tsunami of attacks against the Church was never about the horrors of abuse. If it were, then the Globe would have acknowledged its own role in the scandals by enthusiastically promoting the very same psychological therapies employed by the Church years ago to treat abusers. Indifferent to its own hypocrisy, the Globe then attacked the Church years later for actually using the therapies the paper had touted.

And it was the Boston Globe, not the Catholic Church, that promoted decriminalizing teenage prostitution. It was also the Globe that insisted that the Church keep public "lists" of accused priests while refusing to name sex abusers within its own offices.

And when a local TV station Boston reported that the licenses of 15 Massachusetts educators are suspended or revoked each year for sexual abuse, the Boston Globe went radio silent, not publishing a single syllable about the news.

Be grateful to Marty Baron and the Boston Globe? No, thanks.

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Want to learn more about the truth of the Boston Globe's attack against the Catholic Church? Check out:

– The book: Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church (Amazon.com) by TheMediaReport.com's David F. Pierre, Jr.

– **TheMediaReport.com SPECIAL REPORT** The Definitive 'Spotlight' Movie Review (TheMediaReport.com) (Nov. 2015)

Tired anti-Catholic bigot: The Boston Globe's Michael Rezendes

What's a bigoted reporter to do when there is no real "news" concerning the source of his enmity? He simply writes the same story over and over again!

The latest Church-bashing screed from Michael Rezendes at the Boston Globe – which now posits that the Church is somehow "irredemable" (!) – is an excellent outline of the media's many phony narratives and subnarratives all in one article.

Same old, same old

For starters, Rezendes asserts that the bishops have yet to "face the crisis," as if the numerous unprecedented measures that the Church has implemented – including diocesan lay review boards, intensified screenings and background checks, and training programs – not to mention over $3 billion in payouts in the US alone – have never even taken place.

Rezendes also claims that "each week, it seems, the scandal detonates yet again with fresh news of priests who have had their way with children." Really? Because in all of of 2017 (the most recent year of data), there was a grand total of exactly three priests in the United States out of 40,000 who faced accusations which could even be deemed "substantiated."

Rezendes also falsely claims that in November Vatican officials "blocked the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from adopting measures that would hold bishops accountable if they covered up for abusive priests," as if the Vatican objected to the mere idea of "holding bishops accountable."

In truth, as it was reported back in November, "there were serious problems under Church law with several of the proposals the bishops had developed," and the Vatican "actually did the [bishops] a favor" in requesting the delay. It avoided having the bishops' proposals being shot down in Rome and exposing them for "not doing their homework" and being embarrassed even further. This episode was also confirmed in an Associated Press story in January.

There's a lot more, but you get the point. Truth and honesty are of little concern to Rezendes. The only agenda here is browbeating the Church once again.

A surprising voice in the crowd

Et tu, Phil?
Phil Lawler joins the mob

● Anne Barrett Doyle, the angry proprietor of BishopAccountability.org, a mean-spirited site that has smeared countless innocent priests;

● the dead and discredited ex-priest Richard Sipe;

● Irish "clergy abuse survivor" and perpetual crank Marie Collins, who resigned from a Vatican abuse panel when it did not fit her liking;

● the Church-suing contingency lawyer Marci Hamilton; and

● Pennsylvania's grandstanding Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who produced his pompous and corrupt "grand jury report" last summer.

But we were very disappointed to see that veteran Catholic writer Philip Lawler, an individual whom we have long respected, now lend his support to Rezendes in his never-ending jihad against the Church.

The Catholic media's coverage of the abuse story in recent years has been cowardly, with almost all major Catholic writers aping their secular counterparts, lest they be criticized on Twitter or elsewhere for being a "Vatican flak," "tone deaf," or "heartless to victims."

Note to Catholic media: There is no current sex abuse scandal. Got it? None. Nada. Please stop conflating the bishops' handling of abuse cases from many decades ago with other issues such as lack of orthodoxy. They are two entirely different issues.

When Pope Francis spoke last fall of Satan ("the Great Accuser") who "roams the world looking how to blame" and spread scandal, did anyone in "Catholic media" look at themselves?

They should have.

Malpractitioners Jenn Abelson (l) and Thomas Farragher (r) of the Boston Globe

What does it say about the integrity of a newspaper when the second sentence of a major front-page article is an outright falsehood?

When it comes to writing hit pieces about the Catholic Church at the Boston Globe, do facts even matter anymore?

Flat out wrong

Professional anti-Catholic bigot:
Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory

Yet in a hint of how little the Globe cares about accuracy when writing about the Church, the article begins with a flat-out falsity:

"[Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph] Bishop Robert Finn wasn't going anywhere.

"He never alerted authorities about photos of young girls' genitals stashed on a pastor's laptop."

Wrong.

The Globe's Jenn Abelson and Thomas Farragher write in reference to the case of disgraced ex-priest Shawn Ratigan. And the truth is that it was Finn's own diocese who reported Ratigan to the police.

The police barely had to lift a finger in the Ratigan case, as it was the diocese who gave them almost everything they needed to move forward against Ratigan.

The Globe's error is clear and egregious. Check out our October 2011 post, "What the Media Got Wrong in the Bishop Finn Case," and the article cited therein by a veteran St. Louis lawyer, "Bishop Finn indictment is legally defective."

A litany of slanted or phony facts

There are numerous other misleading passages in Abelson's and Farragher's attack piece:

● The pair spotlights the case of Wheeling, West Virginia, Bishop Michael Bransfield and reports that the Church "fielded a complaint from a man who said Bransfield had sexually abused him in the late 1970s."

Yeah, we knew that. But the accusations against Bransfield were later wholly discredited, with witnesses even coming forward by name to say no such abuse ever occurred.

● The writers also spotlight the case of a 55-year-old woman who claims that she suffered "near daily abuse" from 1977 to 1981 (nearly 40 years ago) as a "teenager" by a priest, yet the priest was not removed from active ministry until this year.

However, the journalistic duo somehow left out a critical fact: The woman was over the age of consent at the time of her allegations, and, according to Church norms when the charges were first brought forward in 1994, the priest did not to have his entire livelihood stripped away for it.

Abelson and Farragher also left out the fact that the accused priest had no other accusers in nearly four decades in the priesthood.

● Abelson and Farragher also trumpet the self-absorbed and disgruntled former employee of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Jennifer Haselberger, as some brave whistleblower against clergy abuse. She is not.

As an employee of the archdiocese, Haselberger seized a priest's computer and took it to the police, claiming that it had "images of pornography," some of which, in her view, "appear[ed] to show children." Well, Haselberger was flat wrong. Police spent months scouring the guy's hard drives, but not a single frame of child pornography was ever found. Zero.

In the end, Haselberger's wild imagination and claim of child pornography was completely false, but the media firestorm completely destroyed the reputation of an innocent priest. But, of course, Abelson and Farragher make no mention of Haselberger's past propensity for hysteria and overstatement when it comes to her former employer.

Not drawn and quartered in the public square?

Abelson and Farragher then complain that some bishops appear to "live comfortably" in isolated retirement. They make note of retired Bishop Finn's "comfortable life" – as opposed to daily beatings in the public square – that includes walking his dog, collecting a pension, and even living in close proximity to a soybean farm.

The outrage.

Make no mistake. The reporting by the Boston Globe on the Catholic Church has absolutely nothing – nada – to do with "protecting children," "exposing wrongdoing," or even "holding leaders accountable." It is not even journalism unless you stretch the meaning of the word.

The Globe's brazen disregard for truth and even-handedness in its reporting are nothing less than unabashed acts of anti-Catholic bigotry. Period. And it's high time that more people stand up and call out the Globe for its bigoted practices.

FACT: The Boston Globe has a history of defending sex between adults and the underage

In January 1978, a judge's ruling shook the country. A New York City judge, Judge Margaret Taylor, ruled that a 14-year-old girl did not commit a crime when she sold herself for sex with an adult. The judge reasoned that because the girl had done something that had become perfectly allowable for adults in an age of "recreational sex," she should not be criminally liable just because she was a teenager.

Most of the country looked on in disgust at the judge's ruling, and an angry New York City Mayor Ed Koch vowed to fight the decision.

But there was one forward-thinking newspaper that applauded the judge's thinking and indeed agreed that teens should be able to sell their bodies for sex to anyone whom they choose: The Boston Globe.

In a January 31, 1978, article (pdf), Globe columnist David B. Wilson wrote:

"Mayor Koch is quoted as saying that the state 'can't just look aside when a 14-year-old girl decides to sell her body.' In fact, the state can and probably should. To fine her is to participate in her business. To punish her is pointless. To 'rehabilitate' her may not be impossible but is certainly beyond the competency of the state.

"Unless society is ready to have the government resume its ever-futile attempts to regulate sexual behavior, prostitution full- and part-time, will continue to flourish."

And don't forget, as chronicled in the book Sins of the Press (by TheMediaReport.com's David F. Pierre, Jr.), only three months after Wilson's article, the Globe published an article from a man named Thomas Reeves. In Reeves' article, "Fairness for all" (click to read, pdf), Reeves passionately argued that arresting gay men for having sex with underage boys was a "witch-hunt against gay people." (Tellingly, the Globe never published an article in rebuttal to Reeves.)

And a mere six months after the Globe gave Reeves its powerful platform to promote his views, an emboldened Reeves co-founded NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a notorious organization that advocated for the abolition of age of consent laws.

The articles from the Globe in 1978 were not just an aberration. Indeed, in 1974, a Globe article even suggested that the age of consent be lowered to the age of 14 "in recognition of the greater sophistication of today's young females."

So the next time you observe the Boston Globe moralizing about the Catholic Church and its handling of abuse cases by priests many decades ago, remember the critical role that the Globe itself played in creating a culture in which the sex abuse of minors was normalized.

Faces of bigotry (l to r): The Boston Globe's Kevin Cullen, editor Brian McGrory, and Michael Rezendes

It was enough to prompt sheer revulsion in any decent human being. The Boston Globe treated the death of Cardinal Bernard Law less as a news story and more as a gleeful celebration and an opportunity to again bludgeon the Catholic Church.

At one point, the Globe actually trumpeted the headline, "'I hope the gates of Hell are swinging wide open'." Then the Globe's boastful Michael Rezendes seized on the occasion to pen a self-congratulatory piece about his work on Spotlight. It was all truly disgusting.

Indeed, a couple years ago, when the word first broke that Cardinal Law was in ill health, the Globe actually touted the sobering news over a photo of Boston Cardinal Seán O'Malley laughing. (One subscriber happily commented, "O'Malley appears to have the same reaction I did to hearing Out-Law was in ill health!") Classy stuff. See for yourself:

Any questions? In 2015, the Boston Globe posted this photo of Cardinal Seán O'Malley laughing
under the headline that Cardinal Bernard Law was 'in ill health' (September 30, 2015)

Therefore, it was no surprise that the central focus of the Globe's reporting on Law's death was not on the man's life but on his handling of abuse cases decades ago. And, most notably, there was not a single syllable at all about how Cardinal Law relied on the advice of so-called "expert" therapists when dealing with abusive priests and determining their fitness to return them to active ministry.

This is important, because it was the Boston Globe itself who back in 1992 – a full decade before the paper's Spotlight tsunami – enthusiastically trumpeted the psychological treatment of sex offenders as "highly effective" and "dramatic." Hence it was the Globe itself who played a critical role in fostering the conditions for the scandal.

Front page of the Boston Globe: June 18, 1992

In a front-page article on June 18, 1992, the Globe blared:

"A new generation of treatment programs for sex offenders is proving highly effective, dramatically reducing the percentage of cases in which offenders repeat sex crimes, research shows.

"Recidivism rates declined from 9 percent for untreated offenders to 5 percent for those who underwent the new treatment in one study, and from 38 percent to 6 percent in another.

"While there is no complete 'cure' for sex offenders, the new findings indicate that many of them can learn to manage their aberrant sexual impulses without committing new crimes. The promising new treatments focus on helping these offenders control the complex cauldron of social inadequacies, distorted thinking, and deviant sex fantasies that prompt them to rape women, molest children or exhibit themselves in public."

By this very article the Globe confirms that the Church's then-practice of sending abusive priests off to treatment was not just some diabolical attempt to deflect responsibility and cover-up wrongdoing, but a genuine attempt to treat aberrant priests that was being widely promoted by secular experts in the field.

The Boston Globe : June 19, 1992

And the very next day in 1992, the Globe also published another article seemingly endorsing the manner in which the Catholic Church handled abusive priests:

"[Those who treat sex offenders] and other specialists said many offenders can be returned to active ministry so long as the clergy and their supervisors accept lifelong restrictions and follow-up care."

The Globe went on to say that "society will suffer" if offenders are not afforded therapeutic treatment, as such measures are "cost-effective" and successful.

Boston Globe editorial: June 26, 1992

Indeed, with regards to Cardinal Law's handling of abuse cases, an eye-opening 1989 letter to the Archdiocese of Boston (< < < must-read!) from an expert psychiatrist insisted that it was "both reasonable and therapeutic" and "clinically quite safe" for John Geoghan – one of the Church's most notorious molesters – "to be reassigned back to his parish" after undergoing extensive therapy, even though he had a voluminous record of criminal abuse.

It is unbelievable. The Globe promoted psychological treatment for sex offenders in 1992 – including the Church's own treatment programs for offending priests – and by 2002 the Globe acted in mock horror and scolded the Church for doing in 1992 exactly what the Globe itself said it should be doing. And the dishonesty continues today.

Indeed, the hypocrisy and corruption of the Boston Globe's reporting on the Catholic Church never cease to astound.

SEE ALSO:
• Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church by David F. Pierre, Jr. (Amazon.com);
• 'Spotlight' EXPOSED: The review that Hollywood and the Boston Globe do not want you to see.

The Boston Globe: One standard for dead Catholic priests, another standard for its own employees

It is truly unbelievable. In a recent article in its own paper, the Boston Globe openly admitted that employees at its paper have been fired or forced to resign due to sexual abuse accusations and sex harassment. However, the paper steadfastly refused to publicly divulge the names of the individuals involved.

Yet as we look back over the past 15+ years, we know for a fact that the Globe apparently never once hesitated to trumpet the names of dead or elderly Catholic priests who were accused of abuse, no matter how long ago or flimsy the accusations were.

Corruption beyond belief

The Globe's article – published and buried late on a Friday afternoon, a notorious time to hide bad news – sheepishly revealed that a prominent political reporter, a "mid-level manager within the Globe's sales department," and a "contract worker" no longer work at the paper because of allegations of inappropriate conduct that occurred within the past year. The article also chronicled alleged abuse by two editors, one of whom has "since died."

In an interview last week on Boston's WGBH radio, Globe editor Brian McGrory was actually asked about why he did not disclose the names of those accused of sex abuse and harassment, to which McGrory gave a long and rambling response. In not revealing the ex-employees' names, he claimed that there were a "variety of reasons" and cited vague "legal hurdles" and "journalistic values we are trying to maintain."

"Journalistic values" At the Globe? He must be kidding.

In the interview, McGrory also unbelievably claimed that when reporting on the Catholic Church years ago, his paper always had "irrevocable proof" that the priests it had publicized were guilty. Yet McGrory now asserts that with regards to his own ex-employees, there is a "complex situation" preventing him from publishing their names.

Think about that. McGrory claims that he had "irrevocable proof" that dead priests and elderly priests whom he didn't even know had committed wrongdoing, yet there are "complicated hurdles" to reporting the names of employees with whom he personally interacted in his own building within the past year and whom he forced to resign.

The hypocrisy is off the charts. Again.

[SEE ALSO:
1. Sins of the Press: The Untold Story of The Boston Globe's Reporting on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)
2. 'Spotlight' EXPOSED (the review Hollywood and the Boston Globe do not want you to read)]