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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 120 of 143 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Last scene of act two
The Boston Globe's Spotlight team pries open the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of child abuse — one sealed record, one silenced victim at a time.
Robby's Spotlight team operates comfortably inside its own routine, prospecting a modest police-corruption story under a departing editor's cover.
Baron's outsider question exposes what the paper has never done: investigate whether Cardinal Law knowingly protected an abusive priest.
The team sets aside its own project and enters unfamiliar territory: survivor networks, a hostile plaintiff's lawyer, and a legal fight to unseal church records.
The team pays the cost of the work — hearing survivor testimony, chasing MacLeish's stonewalling, and combing church directories for a hidden pattern of reassigned priests.
The directory search and Sipe's estimate deliver what they set out for: confirmation that the abuse spans dozens, then eighty-seven, priests across Boston.
Stuck in traffic on Old Colony Road, Mike keeps reading a second letter to Law about Geoghan's reassignment.
The cab pulls up to the Globe and Mike jumps out, still reading the letter about Geoghan's history of abuse.
Mike races through the lobby and up the escalator, still reading the letter's warning about Geoghan's departure from Saint Brendan's.
This scene
The whole team sits around as Mike finishes reading.
MIKE
“I wonder if Father Geoghan should
not be reduced to weekend work while
receiving therapy. You know how
grateful I am to you for your
constant concern, sincerely yours in
our Lord, Most Reverend John M.
D'Arcy, Auxiliary Bishop of Boston.
December 7, 1984.”
MATT
An auxiliary bishop wrote that?
We see the letters, both addressed to Law. The team reels.
SACHA
It’s incredible. He broke ranks.
When did Gallant write her letter?
MIKE
1984.
SACHA
And Law just ignored her.
MATT
How do you ignore that freakin’
letter?!
MIKE
We’ve got him. You can’t read those
letters and think anything else.
It’s proof.
ROBBY
Yeah. It is. This is good work.
MIKE
Should we take it up to Ben?
ROBBY
No, not yet.
MIKE
Why not? We got Law. This is it.
ROBBY
No, this is Law covering for one
priest. There’s another 90 out
there.
MIKE
Yeah, and we can print that story
when we get it but we gotta go with
this now.
ROBBY
I’m not gonna rush the story, Mike.
MIKE
We don’t have a choice, if we don’t
run to press, somebody else is gonna
find those letters and butcher the
story! Joe Quimby from the Herald
was at the freakin’ courthouse!
ROBBY
we’ll keep an eye on the Herald.
MIKE
(losing it)
Keep our eye on the Herald? They
run this and they get it wrong, the
Church will bury it! We gotta do
this now!
MATTY MIKE
Mike -- What? Why are we hesitating!
Baron told us to get Law!
ROBBY
Baron told us to get the system. We
need the full scope, that’s the only
thing that will put an end to this.
MIKE
Then let’s take it up to Ben, let
him decide!
ROBBY
We’ll take it to Ben when I say it’s
time.
MIKE
It’s time, Robby. They knew and they
let it happen! To kids! This
coulda been you, it coulda been me,
it could have been any one of us.
We gotta nail these scumbags, show
people that no one can get away with
this! Not a priest or a Cardinal or
a fricking Pope!
Robby, Sacha, and Matt are still. Mike looks around the room, out of breath, adrenaline draining. Robby is pissed.
ROBBY
You finished?
MIKE
Yeah. I am. This is bullshit.
Mike leaves, slamming the door behind him.