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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 82 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.
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.
A Dorchester victim tells Sacha his mother served the visiting Bishop cookies rather than press charges after learning about the abuse, and Maryetta Dussourd separately describes the pressure to stay silent.
Sacha pins fifteen priests' names to the growing corkboard while Sipe describes over the phone how abusers are emotionally arrested at a child's level.
A Hingham cop tells Sacha the police always knew about abusive priests but no one wanted to arrest a man of the collar, and a Jamaica Plain man confirms he knows Father Hurley and Father Gale by name, while another man angrily threatens Matt off his porch.
This scene
Sacha walks up to a door. The knock. A kindly looking OLDER MAN (RONALD PAQUIN) in a checkered shirt answers the door.
SACHA
Hi, I’m looking for Ronald Paquin.
RONALD PAQUIN
Yes?
Sacha blinks, surprised.
SACHA
You’re... Father Paquin?
FATHER PAQUIN
Yes, that’s right.
SACHA
(rapid, tense)
My name is Sacha Pfeiffer, I, I’m a
reporter with the Boston Globe.
FATHER PAQUIN
Okay.
Sacha, awkward, reaches for her pad.
SACHA
Could I ask you a few questions?
FATHER PAQUIN
Go ahead, dear.
Sacha starts recording.
SACHA
We’ve talked to several men who knew
you when they were boys at St. John
the Baptist in Haverhill? They told
us you molested them? Is that true?
FATHER PAQUIN
...Sure. I fooled around. But I
never felt gratified myself.
Sacha almost hides her shock.
SACHA
Right, uh, but you admit that you
molested boys at St. John the
Baptist?
FATHER PAQUIN
Yes, yes, but as I said, I never got
any pleasure from it. That’s
important to understand.
SACHA
Right. Can you tell me where and
how you, uh, fooled around with
these boys.
FATHER PAQUIN
I want to be clear, I never raped
anyone. There’s a difference. I
should know.
SACHA
How would you know?
FATHER PAQUIN
SACHA
...I’m sorry... who raped you?
JANE PAQUIN (O.C.) Ronny? Who’re you talking to? FATHER PAQUIN It’s okay, Jane.
SACHA (CONT’D)
Father Paquin, who raped you?
Paquin’s sister, JANE PAQUIN, 50s, comes to the door.
JANE PAQUIN
Who are you? SACHA Sacha Pfeiffer, I’m with the Globe--
JANE PAQUIN
Please get off my porch. FATHER PAQUIN I can speak for myself, Jane.
JANE PAQUIN
Get inside the house, Ronald. SACHA I just have a few more--
JANE PAQUIN
Get inside, Ronnie. SACHA I’m sorry, who are you?
JANE PAQUIN
I’m his sister, and I don’t SACHA want you coming back here. Ms. Paquin --
But Jane SLAMS the door. Sacha stands there for a moment, STUNNED. Then she turns, quickly heads down the walkway, scribbling notes. She pauses as she reaches the sidewalk, finishing up. Two CHILDREN ride past on bikes. She’s VISIBLY SHAKEN by the encounter.