Jason Berry

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Jason Berry
Jason Berry 1061146.jpg
Born1949
NationalityAmerican
EducationJesuit High School
Alma materGeorgetown University
GenreWriter, journalist, film director

Jason Berry (born 1949) [1] is an American investigative reporter, author and film director based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is known for pioneering investigative reporting on sexual abuse in the priesthood of the Catholic Church. [2] [3]

Contents

Life

He attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans, graduating in 1966. Berry is a graduate of Georgetown University. [4]

His book Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (1992) was the first major book on this issue. His 2004 book Vows of Silence deals with the sexual abuse of Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, and the cover-up of that abuse. The author also adapted Vows of Silence into a film. [5] Berry has been frequently interviewed in national media in the United States, has worked as a consultant for ABC News, and contributed to the National Public Radio and is a speaker on sexual abuse issues and popular culture. [6]

Berry has also written books and news articles on music, particularly jazz, and co-wrote Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II with Jonathan Foose and Tad Jones. [3] [7]

Awards

Berry won his first Catholic Press Association Award in 1986 for his original coverage in the National Catholic Reporter of the clergy sexual-abuse scandals in Louisiana, notably including the priest Gilbert Gauthe. He was awarded his second in 1993 for the publication of Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children. He was a recipient of the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship for his reportage of David Duke. He and his wife live in New Orleans. [8]

Berry won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1992, covering Louisiana's political demagogues.[ citation needed ]

Books

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church sexual abuse cases</span>

There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up. The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14. Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s. Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legionaries of Christ</span> Catholic religious congregation

The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ is a Roman Catholic clerical religious order made up of priests and candidates for the priesthood established by Fr. Marcial Maciel, LC in Mexico in 1941. Maciel was also Director General of the congregation for over 60 years until forced to step down in January 2005 as a result of grave sexual scandals against seminarians and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcial Maciel</span> Mexican priest, founder of the Legion of Christ, sexual abuser

Marcial Maciel Degollado was a Mexican Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. He was general director of the Legion from 1941 to 2005. Throughout most of his career, he was respected within the church as "the greatest fundraiser of the modern Roman Catholic church" and as a prolific recruiter of new seminarians. Late in his life, Maciel was revealed to have been a longtime drug addict who sexually abused many boys and young men in his care. After his death, it came to light that he had also maintained sexual relationships with at least four women, one of whom was a minor at the time. He fathered as many as six children, two of whom he is alleged to have sexually abused.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge</span> Diocese of the Catholic Church

The Diocese of Baton Rouge, is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese in the Florida Parishes region of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of New Orleans. The current bishop is Michael Duca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans</span> Latin Catholic archdiocese in the United States

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is a Latin Church ecclesiastical division of the Catholic Church spanning Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Washington civil parishes of southeastern Louisiana. It is the second to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in age among the present dioceses in the United States, having been elevated to the rank of diocese on April 25, 1793, during Spanish colonial rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellis Marsalis Jr.</span> American jazz pianist and educator (1934–2020)

Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana</span> Latin Catholic jurisdiction in the U.S.

The Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana, is a Latin Catholic ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. The diocese was erected by the Vatican in 1918, and its current bishop is J. Douglas Deshotel. Covering St. Landry, Evangeline, Lafayette, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, Acadia, and Vermilion parishes with exception to Morgan City of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux), the diocese is divided into four deaneries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Neville</span> American musician, singer, and songwriter (1937–2019)

Arthur Lanon Neville Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist from New Orleans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington</span> Diocese in northern Kentucky, United States

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington is a Latin Church diocese in Northern Kentucky in the United States, The cathedral church of the diocese is the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport</span> Diocese of the Catholic Church

The Diocese of Shreveport is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church covering the parishes of northern Louisiana in the United States.

Archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney was a Canadian Catholic priest who was Archbishop of St. John's from 1979 to 1991. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Klein</span> American musician and author (1955–2020)

Kenny Klein (1955–2020) was an American folk and country musician and a published author. He was an elder and high priest in the Blue Star tradition of Wicca. Klein was a fiddler, playing styles ranging from British folk to jazz and swing. He was convicted in April 2017 of 20 counts of possession of child pornography. He died while serving his sentence in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelton Fabre</span> Catholic archbishop

Shelton Joseph Fabre is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the Archbishop of Louisville in Kentucky since March 30, 2022. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana from 2013 to 2022 and was auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in Louisiana from 2007 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Porter Jr.</span> American funk bass guitarist and singer

George Porter Jr. is an American musician, best known as the bassist and singer of the Meters. Along with Art Neville, Porter formed the group in the mid 1960s and came to be recognized as one of the progenitors of funk. The Meters disbanded in 1977, but reformed in 1989. The original group played the occasional reunion, with the Funky Meters, of which Porter and Neville are members, keeping the spirit alive, until Neville's retirement in 2018 and death the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Nocentelli</span> American musician and songwriter

Leo Nocentelli is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member and lead guitarist of the funk band the Meters. He wrote the original versions of several funk classics such as "Cissy Strut" and "Hey Pocky A-Way". As a session musician he has recorded with a variety of notable artists such as Dr. John, Robert Palmer and Etta James. He is the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the Meters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual abuse cases of Marcial Maciel</span> Clerical sexual abuse cases in Mexico

Marcial Maciel was the founding leader of the Legion of Christ, then based in Mexico, and its general director from 1941 to January 2005. Since the 1970s the prominent Mexican Roman Catholic priest had sexually abused at least 60 minors." and fathered six children by three women. Described as a charismatic leader and the "greatest fundraiser of the modern Roman Catholic church", he was successful in recruiting seminarians at a time of declining priestly vocations. Maciel was the "highest ranking priest ever disciplined because of sexual abuse allegations."

Several cases of sexual abuse in St. John's archdiocese have been reported, starting in 1988. It is an important chapter in the series of clerical abuse affairs that occurred in the dioceses of Canada.

The Winter Commission was a diocesan commission appointed in May 1989 by Alphonsus Liguori Penney, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Johns, to conduct hearings surrounding the Mount Cashel abuse affairs.

Aquinas Walter Richard Sipe was an American Benedictine monk-priest for 18 years, a psychotherapist and the author of six books about Catholicism, clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and clerical celibacy.

Luis Garza Medina is a Roman Catholic priest of the Legion of Christ who previously served as its Vicar General, Territorial Director of North America, and Spiritual Director in Manila, Philippines. Medina currently resides in Monterrey, Mexico.

References

  1. Hunter, Beryl; Thomson, Laura. "Berry, Jason (1949-)". Amistad Research Center . Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  2. Roig-Franzia o, Manuel (September 20, 2011). "Despite investigating Catholic scandals, author Jason Berry keeps the faith". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Roberts, Tom (November 20, 2019). "The jazz writer: Jason Berry's quest to understand the place where he's from". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  4. "Jason Berry". Pulitzer Center. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
  5. "Vowsofsilencefilm.com". Archived from the original on October 7, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
  6. Jasonberryauthor.com
  7. Maria C. Montoya (September 2, 2009). "Jason Berry expands on New Orleans music history primer in a reissue of Up from the Cradle of Jazz". The Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  8. Biographical information appears on book jacket of Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children first published by Doubleday in 1992, ISBN   978-0-385-42436-3