ETHICAL FILM REVIEW & CHRISTIAN HISTORY

JAMIE GERHARDT

SPOTLIGHT60’S-90’S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

SOMETIMES IT'S EASY TO FORGET THAT WE SPEND MOST OF OUR TIME STUMBLING AROUND THE DARK. SUDDENLY, A LIGHT GETS TURNED ON AND THERE'S A FAIR SHARE OF BLAME TO GO AROUND. I CAN'T SPEAK TO WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE I ARRIVED, BUT ALL OF YOU HAVE DONE SOME VERY

GOOD REPORTING HERE. REPORTING THAT I BELIEVE IS GOING TO HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND CONSIDERABLE IMPACT ON OUR READERS. FOR ME, THIS KIND OF STORY IS WHY WE DO THIS.

Marty Baron

SPOTLIGHT

TEXT

THE SPOTLIGHT TEAM

▸ Michael Rezendes

▸ Walter Robinson

▸ Sacha Pfieffer

▸ Marty Baron

▸ Ben Bradlee

▸ Matt Carroll

2001

SPOTLIGHT TEAM HIRES MARTY BARON

▸ The Boston Globe hires a new editor, Marty Baron. He meets the Spotlight team. Marty reads a Globe column about a lawyer who knew about a priest (John Georghan) abusing children and didn’t stop him. Spotlight investigates it.

POLITICAL POWER

THE CHURCH WAS IN CHARGE

▸ The church held a lot of political power in the Greater Boston area and always put pressure on institutions like The Boston Globe. Because of this, Spotlight had a hard time getting documents that they needed.

GEOGHAN

ONE MAN’S STORY TRUMPS THEM ALL.

▸ In 1984, Cardinal Bernard F. Law assigned Rev. John J. Geoghan to St. Julia’s in Weston even though Geoghan had been removed from his two prior parishes for molesting children. In one of those cases, Geoghan asserted that his repeated abuse of seven boys in one family, which was discovered that year, was not a “serious” problem. In Geoghan’s career he had six parish assignments in 34 years with accusations that he molested more than 130 children.

2002

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

▸ The huge number of documents compiled by lawyers handling the 84 remaining civil suits were under a confidentiality seal organized by the archdiocese. But based on a motion by the Globe, Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney finally ordered that all the documents be made public.

INVESTIGATING

THE TRUTH COMES OUT

▸ One of the priests did admit to his activities. Rev. Ronald H. Paquin told a reporter, Kurkjian, that he had molested boys until 1989, the year before the Archdiocese of Boston removed him from his position. His crimes spanned 15 years across two different parishes.

OUTCOMES

THE POWER OF NUMBERS

▸ There were originally thought to be about 12-15 priests involved. In the end, it turned out to be almost 250 priests in Boston who had molested children over several decades. Over the years, the church had moved around some of the clergy from parish to parish to help prevent their crimes from being exposed.

OUTBREAK

SHARING THEIR STORY

▸ More and more stories began to surface. The Spotlight team interviewed 30 or 40 victims during their research, which often took an emotional toll on the reporters. Once the story reached the masses in early 2002, more victims came forward, because they no longer felt like they were alone in what had happened.

OUTBREAK CONT.

SHARING THEIR STORY: PART 2

▸ The Globe provided a phone number for victims of these priests to call in. The morning after the story went to print, the office of the Spotlight team had their phones ringing off the hook with victims and their personal stories.

REAL WORLD CASES

INCIDENTS IN THE CHURCH ARE NO HIGHER THAN OUTSIDE

▸ Believe it or not, the incidence of pedophilia in the Catholic Church was around 6% in 2002, which is in line with the general population. There are not more cases with priests than civilians when it comes to this terrible crime. What makes it significantly more tragic are the efforts by some members of the church to cover up the abuse.

2003

BOSTON GLOBE SPOTLIGHT TEAM

▸ Oldest running investigative journalist unit (Spotlight) earned the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service after exposing over 250 cases of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church

THERE IS NO PLACE IN THE PRIESTHOOD OR RELIGIOUS LIFE FOR THOSE WHO WOULD HARM THE YOUNG.

Pope John Paul II

2002

SINCE THEN

▸ Since then, the Church in the United States continues to address the issue. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a national policy of zero tolerance for those accused of molesting.

CHRISTIAN LEADERS

IMPLICATIONS

▸ These unfortunate series of events turned many away from the Catholic church. Christian leaders today are called to address this issue, no matter how much we’d rather believe that it didn’t exist.

IMPLICATIONS

THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL

▸ The stories from The Hole in Our Gospel model how the Good News can bring redemption out of any brokenness. Christians today cannot take the sins, mistakes, and shortfalls of the past and use them to create any sort of image of God. It s the responsibility of leaders within the church today to show that even the most shameful parts of a person can be redeemed. Christian leadership today needs to lead youth groups better than ever before. Leaders should not shy away from responsibility out of fear, rather lean into the opportunity to shed light on to youth ministry in today’s world.

FUAST, B.P., GOLIN, S., ROCKLIN, M., SUGAR, N., & MCCARTHY, T. (2015). SPOTLIGHT. UNITED STATES: OPEN ROAD FILMS.

References

STEARNS, R. (2010). THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL. NASHVILLE, TN: THOMAS NELSON.

PFEIFFER, S. (2002). KEOGHAN PREFERRED PREYING ON POORER CHILDREN. RETRIEVED FROM: HTTP://WWW.BOSTONGLOBE.COM/NEWS/SPECIAL-REPORTS/2002/01/07/GEOGHAN-PREFERRED-PREYING-POORER-CHILDREN/69DE1KOUETJPHWMIBCGZCM/STORY.HTML