PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — James Talbot, a former Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting boys in Maine and Massachusetts after he was exposed by the investigation highlighted in the movie “Spotlight,” has died. He was 87.
Talbot, a former Jesuit, appeared on a list provided by the religious order of northeastern Jesuits who faced credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Talbot died on Feb. 28 at a hospice center in St. Louis, said Mike Gabriele, a spokesperson for Jesuits USA East.
Talbot was one of the subjects of The Boston Globe's investigation into priest sexual abuse that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and was adapted into the 2015 movie “Spotlight.” The investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse, and coverup of that abuse, within the Catholic Church. Jesuits USA East did not offer a comment about Talbot's death.
He pleaded guilty in 2018 to gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual for sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy at a Maine church in the 1990s. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Prior to the Maine conviction, Talbot spent six years in prison after pleading guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two students in Boston. He has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen victims in addition to the convictions.
Talbot was a former teacher and athletic coach at Boston College High School from 1972 to 1980 before he was transferred to Maine, where he worked at Cheverus High School in Portland until 1998.
Former Boston College High School student Jim Scanlan, 63, reported Talbot's abuse in Massachusetts. The Associated Press doesn't typically use the names of sexual assault victims without their consent, which Scanlan provided. His reports led to charges against Talbot.
Scanlan said he has reached out to others who were abused by Talbot. He said he holds people in positions of power within the church accountable for allowing Talbot to continue abusing children over many years.
Scanlan said he has tried to deal with his anger at Talbot, but it's a long process.
“The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference,” Scanlan said. “Maybe I just parked him away a long time ago, resolved I couldn't change what happened.”
Jesuits USA East said Talbot had been residing at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri, prior to entering hospice care. The center cares for sexually abusive priests and provides other health care services.
Talbot's case was emblematic of a pattern of behavior in the Catholic church about how it dealt with sexual abuse and priests. Accusations against him went back decades, and in that time he was transferred to new jurisdictions.
Allegations of a cover-up went all the way up to Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston. The Globe investigation revealed Law and his predecessors had transferred abusive priests from parish to parish without alerting authorities, or parents. Law died in 2017.
The investigation into the Catholic church opened up wider queries into sex abuse in other religious institutions that uncovered abuse in other faiths and the Boy Scouts.
Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
