A scene from Spotlight.
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one,” Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse, said in the movie “Spotlight.” The Catholic Church, one of the biggest religious groups in the world, has its fair share of problems over the years. But it is a terrible thing that pedophilia is one of them. What started out as an investigation of one priest sexually abusing children and the Church’s coverup turned into something much bigger and horrific.
In 2001, The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team got to work uncovering what ended up being 87 priests, about 6 percent of priests in Boston, accused of pedophilia. “You guys gotta understand. This is big. This is not just Boston. It’s the whole country. It’s the whole world. And it goes right up to the Vatican,” Phil Saviano, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in the movie. The team worked countless hours to make sure that this story had what it needed to be published.
After they printed the main story, the Boston Globe continued to publish articles daily from the reports of the victims coming forward with their account. The number of survivors from these horrible events is in the 1,000s. None of the children came forward for years because of the shame they had felt. “How do you say no to God, right? See, it is important to understand that this is not just physical abuse, it’s spiritual abuse, too,” Saviano said “And when a priest does this to you, he robs you of your faith.”
This is a scandal that shocked the Catholic community to the core. There is no excuse for the Catholic Church covering up the sexual abuse these victims went through. The traumatic experiences of sexual abuse are not something that should be dealt with lightly. The last thing the Catholic Church should have done was cover up the horrible situation. It can be devastating to be betrayed by religion. That’s something that is a big part of life for many people.
Each person on the team sacrificed time and energy, some even losing their connection to religion. “I stopped going to church with my nana. It was it was too hard. I… you know, I’d be sitting there, and I would start thinking about Joe Crowley or someone else, and I just, I just got so angry,” Sacha Pfeiffer, a reporter from the Spotlight team, said. The sacrifices that were made were worth it in order to bring this scandal into the spotlight. To break the silence of the Catholic Church and bring the issue to the public.
The movie “Spotlight” shows that all have their secrets, even the Catholic Church. It also shows that there is hope for justice. The ensemble cast, including Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams, made the story engaging and moving for many. “Spotlight” shows a piece of history and is a must watch for everyone. It tells the compelling story of how the journalists worked so hard to bring this scandal to the public and that secrets always have a way of revealing themselves in the end.
