How One Man Changed the World
This summer, sixteen years ago, the clergy abuse crisis began for me, as well as for a lot of people. On June 2, 1992, ABC News PrimeTime broadcast the very first piece about serial child molester James Porter. I remember watching it, hugging myself and crying. I couldn’t believe that they were talking about the same kind of horror I had been dealing with for several months previous.
But it was indeed. Three weeks later, they broadcast an update. A young Diane Sawyer told the story about how it came about. The exposure of Porter was due to a brave survivor, Frank Fitzpatrick, who had been abused by Porter as a 12-year-old altar boy. Now grown, and a professional investigator, he tracked Porter down and actually confronted him on the phone.
The show even ran bits of the tape. Porter admitted he had abused Frank with an embarrassed chuckle, but that was the most remorse he would show. He claimed he had stopped molesting children in 1967, which of course, was a total lie.
For Diane Sawyer said that just during those three weeks some 60 victims came out. They even showed footage of her camera crew confronting the ex-priest, who reacted like a caged animal. It was electric, overwhelming, like nothing that had been on television before. (more…)
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