PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online
Editorial
THE ISSUE
The movie “Spotlight,” which won the Best Picture Oscar this year, detailed the Boston Globe’s tenacious reporting on the sexual abuse scandal and cover-up in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, under Cardinal Bernard Law. In 2002, the Globe wrote some 600 stories on the subject of abusive priests, and the church’s system of covering up the priestly abuse. A similar pattern of cover-up took place in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. A statewide investigating grand jury determined that hundreds of children in that diocese were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by at least 50 priests or religious leaders. “Evidence and testimony reviewed by the grand jury also revealed a troubling history of superiors within the Diocese taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image,” Kane’s office said in a March 1 statement.
If only “Spotlight” was a fictional creation of Hollywood, and not the all-too-real story of the Catholic Church’s systematic pattern of hiding priestly child sexual abuse.
If only the story told by The Boston Globe pertained only to Boston, and not to Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, and Los Angeles, and Altoona-Johnstown, and dioceses across the globe.
Unfortunately, wishing doesn’t make it so.
“Spotlight” highlighted just how essential newspaper journalism can and should be. It showed how the unglamorous work of poring through documents, filing Right-to-Know requests and doggedly pursuing sources can yield a story that changes institutions and, more importantly, people’s lives.
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.