Jason Berry (born 1949) is an American investigative reporter, author and film director based in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana. He is known for pioneering investigative reporting on sexual abuse in the priesthood of the Catholic Church.

Life

He attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans, graduating in 1966. Berry is a graduate of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. 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 Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 – January 30, 2008) 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 ca ...

, the founder of the

Legion of Christ The Legionaries of Christ (in , abbreviated L.C.) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic religious congregation of pontifical right founded on January 3, 1941, by the Mexican Catholic priest Marcial Maciel. It belongs constitutively to the spiritua ...

, and the cover-up of that abuse. The author also adapted ''Vows of Silence'' into a film. Berry has been frequently interviewed in national media in the United States, has worked as a consultant for

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, and contributed to the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

and is a speaker on sexual abuse issues and popular culture. Berry has also written books and news articles on music, particularly

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, and co-wrote '' Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II'' with Jonathan Foose and Tad Jones.

Awards

Berry won his first Catholic Press Association Award in 1986 for his original coverage in the ''

National Catholic Reporter The ''National Catholic Reporter'' (''NCR'') is a national newspaper in the United States that reports on issues related to the Catholic Church. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, ''NCR'' was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964. Hoyt wanted to bring t ...

'' of the clergy sexual-abuse scandals in Louisiana, notably including the priest

Gilbert Gauthe Gilbert Gauthe is an American former Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana from 1972 to 1983. In 1984, Gauthe became the first Catholic priest in the United States to face a widely publicized criminal trial for child ...

. 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 David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American politician, neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the ...

. He and his wife live in New Orleans.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, Berry won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1992, covering Louisiana's political demagogues.

Books

*'' Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II'' Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1986. , *''Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children'' (1992) Re-issued, March 27, 2000 by University of Illinois Press. *''The Spirit of Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans and Indians'' (1995) *''Vows of Silence'' New York; London: Free Press, 2004. , *''Last of the Red Hot Poppas'' Seattle: Chin Music Press, 2006. , *''City of a Million Dreams : A History of New Orleans at Year 300'', Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. ,

Filmography

*''Vows of Silence'', director * Up from the Cradle of Jazz, director

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Jason Living people American investigative journalists Media coverage of Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of Mississippi Jazz writers Georgetown University alumni Jesuit High School (New Orleans) alumni American male non-fiction writers 1949 births