Dramatization of journalists in Boston exposing the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2016)

We saw this movie on DVD from our local public library. "Spotlight" was the most recent Oscar winner for "Best Picture."
It is important to keep in mind that the title "Spotlight" refers to a group of 4 or 5 journalists in the Boston Globe newspaper office who go by that designation, they find and research difficult stories then report on them. Unlike a typical news report which may take a day or two to investigate, theirs may take months.
The cast is super, no weak spots, but I will only mention one. It is early 2001 and the new top editor is Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, coming to Boston from Miami. He was a true outsider for several reasons, not only had he never been to Boston, where there is a strong Catholic presence, he was Jewish. But he was a true newspaperman, he felt strongly that their job was to uncover and report the truth.
So this hint of a story came up, a priest in the Boston Archdiocese being a pedophile, and having abused children. To Baron it seemed there was a deeper story there and he encouraged "Spotlight" to dig into it. As it turns out this was not a new piece of information but partly because it seemed that the Archdiocese was all-powerful in Boston no one ever wanted to dig further.
Along the investigative route the team came upon a former priest who had studied the issue on his own and estimated across the board, not just Boston, roughly 6% of priests are practicing some sort of sexual misbehavior. That would be about 90 among the 1500 Boston area priests.
All of this was happening right before and right after our "9/11" attacks, and culminates in early 2002. When it was shown, using old unsealed documents, that Archbishop Law was a party to the covering up abuse, which included moving guilty priests to different Parishes, he resigned later that year.
The movie has received generally very positive reception by the Catholic Church in general. One priest wrote: " Every seminarian should see this movie. The USCCB should spend an evening watching it together and discussing it. The only disinfectant that will really lead to cleansing is the bright light of truth. The Archdiocese of Boston would never have reformed without the Globe stories. "
One Bishop wrote, "All bishops and cardinals must see this film, because they must understand that it is reporting abuse that will save the Church. "
As a viewer and also a Catholic I must wonder, if the Jewish newspaperman had not gone into Boston when he did, would this have ever been exposed?