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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 58 of 143 · ≈ 2 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.'
Librarian Lisa Tuite hands Matt the Archdiocese's annual priest directory, explaining it tracks every priest's parish assignment back decades.
Walking the halls, Mike tells Robby that abusers target the same profile of vulnerable kid, describing Sipe's research on predatory patterns.
In the quiet pressroom, Mike tells Robby the Church smeared Sipe to discredit him, and Robby pushes Mike harder on Garabedian.
This scene
A dank basement, low fluorescents and rows of old books on cheap tin bookshelves. Robby and Mike react to the smell.
MIKE
Jeez, what the hell is that smell?
MATT (O.C.)
There’s a dead rat in the corner.
Mike and Robby find Matt beside a HUGE STACK OF BOOKS.
ROBBY
What do we got?
MATT
Church directories. It’s every
priest in Massachusetts, what parish
they’re assigned to...
MIKE
These are official?
Mike and Robby grab directories, flipping through.
MATT
Yeah. I figured they could help us
track down the priests Saviano
mentioned, maybe find more victims.
ROBBY
(reads, squinting)
Can we turn on some more lights?
MATT
I couldn’t find the switch. You
wanna borrow my glasses?
ROBBY
No, I’m good.
MIKE
(off a directory)
1983, John Geoghan... St. Brendan’s
in Dorchester. So we can see where
any priest was in any given year.
MATT
(flips through another)
Exactly. I got him here at... huh.
ROBBY
What?
MATT
1980, the year he was pulled from
JP. It says he’s on sick leave.
MIKE
Come on. It actually says that?
Matt shows Mike. Robby urgently searches the directories.
ROBBY
Where’s 1991?
Robby finds the 1991 Directory and opens it. He searches...
ROBBY (CONT’D)
Barrett... Barrett... Liam Barrett..
I can’t read this. Can you look up
(handing it to Mike)
1991’s the year they pulled him out
of Charlestown.
MIKE
(reading)
Barrett, Liam. Sick leave.
He shows them. We see the designation. SICK LEAVE.
MIKE (CONT’D)
It’s an official designation.
ROBBY
Let’s get these upstairs. And Matt,
let’s check the priests Saviano gave
us.
They start to collect the directories. Robby’s cell RINGS.
ROBBY (INTO THE PHONE) (CONT’D)
Robby.
SACHA (OVER THE PHONE)
Hey, I’m down at the courthouse.