Jason Berry is an investigative reporter in New Orleans, an American author and film director. He is renowned for pioneering investigative reporting on sexual abuse in the priesthood of the Catholic Church.

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

Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado was a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. He was accused of pedophilia early in his life and having fathered at least one child...

, the founder of the Legion of Christ

Legion of Christ

The Legion of Christ is a Roman Catholic congregation of pontifical right, made up of priests and seminarians studying for the priesthood. It was founded in Mexico in 1941, by Fr. Marcial Maciel, who directed the congregation as its General Superior until January 2005...

, 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

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

, and contributed to the National Public Radio and is a speaker on sexual abuse issues and popular culture.

He has also written books on popular music.

Berry won his first Catholic Press Association

Catholic Press Association

The Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada is an association of newspaper and media specialists specialized on reporting on the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1911, it has over 600 member organizations...

 Award in 1986 for his original coverage in the National Catholic Reporter

National Catholic Reporter

The National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...

 of the clergy sexual-abuse scandals in Louisiana. He was awarded his second in 1993 for the publication of Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children. Berry is a graduate of Georgetown University and a recipient of the Alicia Patterson

Alicia Patterson

Alicia Patterson was the founder and editor of Newsday.-Life:A daughter of Alice and Joseph Medill Patterson, the founder of the New York Daily News and the great-granddaughter of Joseph Medill, owner of the Chicago Tribune, Alicia Patterson found her calling late in life when her third husband,...

 Journalism Fellowship for his reportage of David Duke

David Duke

David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...

. He and his wife live in New Orleans with their two young daughters.

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 (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. ISBN 978-0252068126
• The Spirit of Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans and Indians (1995)
• Vows of Silence (2004)
• Last of the Red Hot Poppas (2006)

External links