The true story behind that Catholic priest ‘rehab house’ in ‘Spotlight’

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

BY CHARLOTTE WILDER @THEWILDERTHINGS

There’s a scene in the movie Spotlight when Boston Globe reporter Matt Carroll, played by actor Brian d’Arcy James, realizes that a “rehab facility” for priests accused of sexual abuse is located around the corner from his own house.

“Oh, s–t,” Carroll says in the movie. Which is what he said in real life when he made the discovery in his West Roxbury home 14 years ago.

“I’m not exactly sure what the script said,” Carroll said. “But as they were filming, Brian (d’Arcy James) said, ‘What did you actually say when you realized [that house] was around the corner?’ And I said, ‘I probably said oh, s–t.’ And that’s the line they used in the movie.”

While his exclamation is accurate, Carroll said the rest of the scene isn’t totally true. The house that Carroll discovered wasn’t actually a rehab facility. It was the home of Father John J. Geoghan, a priest accused of sexually assaulting more than 130 boys. Geoghan was eventually convicted of a single count of molesting a boy at a public swimming pool and later murdered by his prison cellmate.

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