Clouds hang over The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, also known as Assumption Grotto, in Detroit, May 8, 2019. The Rev. Eduard Perrone, a founder of the Opus Bono Sacerdotii group, presided over the church for 25 years until he was recently removed from ministry.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
It was a piece of investigative journalism that yielded stunning revelations about the role of a small nonprofit in Michigan that has been quietly providing money, shelter and legal help to hundreds of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse. Investigative reporters Martha Mendoza, Garance Burke and Juliet Linderman dug into the nonprofit after noticing an angry thread on Reddit that made reference to an organization providing protection to abusive priests.
The reporters launched an aggressive effort to unravel the story behind the organization, called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. They scoured Catholic archives, went to the halls of St. John’s Seminary in Detroit, conducted dozens of interviews with experts, lawyers, clergy members and former employees, and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests. One of the people they interviewed was Mary Rose Maher, a former employee of the group and daughter of an Opus Bono co-founder, who wrote a letter to state authorities exposing the group’s alleged financial practices.
Photographer Paul Sancya told the story through a powerful set of images gathered over weeks, while his Detroit colleague, video journalist Mike Householder, chased down court records and made important introductions while putting together his own compelling piece.
Father Eduard Perrone talks to a reporter in Warren, Mich., June 7, 2019. In July 2019, Detroit’s Catholic archdiocese removed Perrone, one of Opus Bono Sacerdotii’s co-founders, from public ministry after a church review board decided there was a “semblance of truth” to allegations that he abused a child decades ago. Perrone told the AP that he “never would have done such a thing.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Father Eduard Perrone conducts a choir during a Mass at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit, June 9, 2019. Perrone, a co-founder of Opus Bono Sacerdotii, was removed from public ministry a month after the AP began asking the archdiocese, law enforcement authorities and the pastor himself about a former altar boy’s allegations that Perrone had groped him. Perrone has denied the charge.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Father Eduard Perrone reads under an umbrella in Warren, Mich., June 7, 2019. Perrone presided over the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit for 25 years until he was recently removed from public ministry over allegations that he abused a child decades ago. Perrone, a co-founder of the Opus Bono Sacerdotii group, told the AP that he “never would have done such a thing.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
An undated photo, left, provided by Mary Rose Maher shows her as a child during her First Communion with Father Eduard Perrone at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit. An undated photo, right, provided by Mary Rose Maher shows her as a child standing with Rev. Komlan Dem Houndjame at the church. Detroit police arrested Houndjame in 2002 and charged him with sexually assaulting a member of the church’s choir. The Opus Bono Sacerdotii group, co-founded by Maher’s father, was launched out of Houndjame’s case and cases like it. Mary Rose Maher worked for the group, but in 2017 she wrote a letter to the state attorney general accusing the group of financial misconduct, triggering the state’s investigation of the group.
Courtesy Mary Rose Maher via AP
Mary Rose Maher, the daughter of Opus Bono Sacerdotii co-founder Joe Maher, and an ex-employee of the organization, visits a former Opus Bono location in Oxford, Mich., June 5, 2019. In a February 2017 letter to the state attorney general, she wrote, “A simple investigation into the Michigan non-profit charity Opus Bono Sacerdotii would bring to light the millions of embezzled dollars, years of mail fraud, and the constant systemic abuse of donations.”
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
The exterior of a former location for Opus Bono Sacerdotii in Dryden, Mich., shown June 6, 2019. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Mary Rose Maher and her fiance, William Chundrlik, visit a former Opus Bono Sacerdotii location in Dryden, Mich., June 5, 2019. Opus Bono’s finances came under scrutiny after authorities were contacted by a once-loyal employee – Mary Rose, the daughter of co-founder Joe Maher — who began questioning the way money was spent.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Informational pamphlets for Opus Bono Sacerdotii are displayed among others at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit, Friday, June 7, 2019. For nearly two decades the small nonprofit organization, operating out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, has provided money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to priests accused of sexual abuse.
AP Photo / Paul Sancya
Even before they published, the team had impact: One of the organization’s co-founders, Rev. Eduard Perrone, was removed from ministry over an allegation that he sexually abused a minor, a month after AP began inquiring. The story gathered growing interest as it was translated and published in predominantly Catholic countries around the world, prompting long Twitter conversations among pundits and priests. Competing Detroit dailies both ran the story on Page 1, and it appeared in dozens of newspapers around the U.S. In its first day the story got more than 270,000 pageviews on APNews.com.
For a story that revealed a startling but little-known group in the shadows of the church’s sexual abuse scandals, Mendoza, Linderman, Burke, Householder and Sancya win AP’s Best of the Week.