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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 55 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · 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.
Phil Saviano tells the team abuse this systemic isn't just physical, it's spiritual: 'if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.'
Walking out, Ben notes Marty is still working late, and Robby tells him he wants to expand the investigation because Phil Saviano's count of thirteen abusive priests might be legitimate.
Richard Sipe, a former priest turned researcher, calls Mike at home and tells him pedophile priests are a recognized psychiatric phenomenon that the Church has known about for decades.
Eileen McNamara and Kurkjian grow suspicious in the cafeteria when Matt fishes for archival help on an unnamed priest.
This scene
A HAND pulls a BOOK off a reference shelf. FIND LISA TUITE, handing Matt the 2001 CATHOLIC CHURCH DIRECTORY.
LISA TUITE
The Archdiocese puts out an annual
directory, every priest and parish.
MATT
This is great. Do these go back any
further than ‘98?
LISA TUITE
Oh yeah. They go back to the 80’s
in the Mez. Beyond that, you gotta
go to the BPL.
MATT
In the Mez. Thanks, Lisa.