In this Feb. 17, 2020 file photograph, Phil Saviano, of BishopAccountability.org, talks to the media during a press conference at the Foreign Press association headquarters, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Pope Francis' summit on clergy abuse, in Rome.
In this Feb. 17, 2020 file photograph, Phil Saviano, of BishopAccountability.org, talks to the media during a press conference at the Foreign Press association headquarters, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Pope Francis' summit on clergy abuse, in Rome.Andrew Medichini/AP Photo
  • A man who was instrumental in the Boston Globe's expose on clergy sex abuse has died. 
  • Phil Saviano, who was abused as a boy in the early 1960s, died on Sunday from cancer.
  • Saviano provided key information to the Globe on clergy sex abuse. 

Phil Saviano, a clergy sex abuse survivor who played a pivotal role in the 2002 Boston Globe investigation into the Catholic Church sex abuse died on Sunday at the age of 69. 

Saviano's brother and caretaker Jim Saviano told The New York Times that he died from gallbladder cancer. 

Late last month, Saviano posted an update on his Facebook announcing he was starting hospice care at his brother's home after doctors were unable to treat his cancer. 

Saviano provided key information to the Globe's Spotlight team for a series of articles on the sex abuse scandal that were published in 2002 that would win the 2003 Pulitzer Prize.

Saviano began speaking up about his abuse by a clergy member in the 1990s. In 1993, Saviano saw a news report that Rev. David Holley was being sued for abusing boys in New Mexico.

The Times reported that Saviano was abused by Holley in the early 1960s when he was 11 years old. Saviano told the Times that when he saw a news report in 1993 that Holley was being sued for abusing boys in New Mexico he decided to speak up. 

"Being an AIDS patient freed me up to have the courage to do something I might not have done," he told The Times. "I was dying. I was broke. My reputation in the eyes of many was already in tatters because I was a gay man with AIDS, and we were pariahs back then. I saw this as a way to have an impact, to do some good on my way out."

Holley was sentenced to 275-year prison in 1993, the Associated Press reported. 

In 1997,  Saviano founded the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

However, despite Holley's conviction and Saviano publicly speaking about his abuse, it took years for anyone to take his allegation seriously. 

"Phil had for years been viewed as a bit of a conspiracy theorist," Walter Robinson, the former editor of the Globe's Spotlight team told the Post. 

Saviano was portrayed by actor Neal Huff in "Spotlight," a 2015 film about the Globe's investigation. The film was the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture the following year. 

"My gift to the world was not being afraid to speak out," Saviano told the Associated Press earlier this month.  

 

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