NORTH CAROLINA
The News & Observer
BY JIM JENKINS
The film “Spotlight” has terrific actors and a sickening, true story for the plot line: It’s 2001, and Boston Globe reporters are researching accusations that some Catholic priests have been molesting scores of young children, perhaps for decades. The city is 50 percent Catholic; the church, its most powerful institution.
The story is double-edged. There is the sexual and spiritual abuse of so many children, and the systematic coverup by the church. Priests found to have engaged in these despicable acts are routinely transferred to other parishes, where they are likely to prey upon other children.
As the world now knows, the church got a scandal for the ages, thanks to the work of some tenacious reporters on the Globe’s Spotlight investigative team, and to a new editor who was not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the story or by the clout of the church — which he experienced first hand in a meeting with Cardinal Bernard Law, perhaps the most powerful man in Boston. After the first story (there would be 600 stories the first year, and 300 the second) was published under the direction of that editor, Marty Baron, the subsequent reports would lead to Law resigning, eventually going to a post in Rome, despite the fact that he had orchestrated settlements with some of the victim’s families, and would be shown a figure in the coverup.
The movie, now playing at the Rialto theater, is said to be an Academy Award favorite. In fact, it may be the big favorite.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.