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Clergy sexual abuse whistleblower Phil Saviano dies at 69

Phil Saviano, a clergy sexual abuse survivor and whistleblower who played a pivotal role in exposing decades of predatory assaults by Roman Catholic priests in the United States, has died. He was 69.

Saviano’s story figured prominently in the 2015 Oscar-winning film Spotlight, which dramatized the Boston Globe investigation that revealed how scores of priests molested children and got away with it because church leaders covered it up.

He died on November 28 after a battle with gallbladder cancer, said his brother and caregiver, Jim Saviano.