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 The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for revealing in 2002 that
church officials routinely covered up reports that priests had
sexually assaulted children, setting off a global wave of
investigations that found similar patterns at dioceses around
the world.
The scandal damaged the Catholic Church worldwide, undermining
its moral authority and requiring costly legal settlements. The
church is still struggling with the crisis, which Pope Francis
addressed last month on his historic first visit to the United
States, meeting with victims and declaring that "God weeps" for
their pain.
The film, which focuses on the work of the investigative
reporters who spent months tracking down sealed court records,
victims and abusive priests, does not depict abuse but shows the
heavy emotional toll it took on survivors, many of whom turned
to alcohol, drugs or suicide when unable to overcome their pain.
"I do think it will encourage more survivors who are still
trapped in silence and shame and suffering to find the courage
to speak up," said David Clohessy, who runs the Survivors
Network of Those Abused by Priests and was sexually assaulted by
a priest as a teenager.
"Spotlight," starring Mark Ruffalo as reporter Mike Rezendes,
Michael Keaton as editor Walter "Robby" Robinson and Rachel
McAdams as reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, opens in U.S. theaters on
Nov. 6. It has gotten strong early reviews in festival showings,
and some in the film industry describe it as a possible Academy
Award contender.
Victims portrayed in the film describe how pedophiles of all
stripes, not just priests, "groom" their potential victims,
first lavishing attention on them, then sharing inappropriate
secrets like pornographic magazines before moving on to raping
them. It is a pattern survivors of child sex abuse have
described repeatedly.
"You feel trapped because he has groomed you. How do you say no
to God?" victim Phil Savino, played by Neal Huff, tells Pfeiffer
in one early scene.
MORE TO UNCOVER?
"Spotlight," produced by Open Road Films, ends with a list of
206 cities around the world, in countries including Ireland,
Australia and Francis' native Argentina, where abuse has been
uncovered.
Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, which
maintains records on abuse and cover ups, said he worries that a
movie set more than a decade ago could lead some viewers to
believe the crisis had passed.
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"It wouldn't be a bad thing for people to ask themselves in what
ways is this continuing and in what ways is it better," said
McKiernan, who has seen the film. "How is it that this terrible
problem duplicated itself around the world, and what do we do about
that?"
Insurance experts told a Vatican conference in 2012 that as many as
100,000 U.S. children may have been the victims of clerical sex
abuse. Some 12 U.S. dioceses have filed for bankruptcy since the
scandal broke, in part due to more than $3 billion in settlements
paid to victims.
But victims' advocacy groups note that they continue to fight to
reform U.S. state laws that set tight time limits on when victims of
sexual assault can sue their alleged attackers.
Victims' advocates contend that short statutes of limitation prevent
victims from recovering money that could help pay for the years' of
therapy that many have needed, while church lobbyists argue that
extending the limits would hurt the church's charitable mission.
Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, appointed after
Cardinal Bernard Law resigned over the scandal, said the film
"depicts a very painful time in the history of the Catholic Church"
and added "the Archdiocese of Boston is fully and completely
committed to zero tolerance concerning the abuse of minors."
The description of the abuse crisis as part of the church's
"history" angers victims and their advocates, who contend that abuse
is ongoing in dioceses around the world.
In one of the film's final scenes, as Rezendes leaves the office of
attorney Mitchell Garabedian, played by Stanley Tucci, he pauses to
look at a pair of young children playing in a conference room, and
Garabedian mentions that they have just been victimized.
That, said director and co-screenwriter Tom McCarthy, was intended
to underline the point that the crisis of abuse has not passed.
"My biggest concern is that not only the church, but the laity, the
parents will think, 'OK, this was a problem of the past. We'll lower
our guard,'" McCarthy said. "Until we're certain that this problem
has been dealt with completely, we have to remain vigilant. We have
to push for reform, for change."
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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Survivors
of clergy sex abuse hope 'Spotlight' film brings victims
forward
