SPOTLIGHT

Recently, I saw the new film "Spotlight" that chronicles the true story of the priest sex abuse scandal and the cover up by the Archdiocese of Boston. The cast is shown above. The movie was very well done and illustrates how powerful institutions can cause serious damage, especially when they go unchallenged. Moreover, the movie captures the power of the free press to expose wrongdoing and to effect change.

The title of the film is taken from the name of a special investigations unit of the Boston Globe newspaper. The editor of the Spotlight team during the early 2000s when this movie takes place is man called Walter "Robby" Robinson. Like the majority of his team, Robby was educated in the Catholic Church, and he still holds the Church in high esteem despite no longer actively practicing his faith. That is because of how intertwined the Church is in the his life and in the lives of so many people from the Boston community. Eventually, the wrongdoings and harm caused by the Church compel Robby and the rest of his team to expose the Church's sins, and we all know how the story ends.

As a lapsed Catholic, I was inspired by this film every bit as much as I was disgusted by the actions of the sick pedophile priests and the Church leadership who covered for them.

To put things in perspective, many people were recently up in arms about how Volkswagen falsified emissions data for its fleet of diesel cars. Many people will never buy a Volkswagen again.

If the Church were a corporation, would we still be patronizing it? How could one? Now obviously a car maker and a religious organization are not the same thing. However, emissions falsifications are also not the same thing as child rape.

There are many reasons why I will not return to the Church, but no reason is more important than the harms done to the meekest of the flock by the Church hierarchy. As a former altar boy, I realize that I easily could have been one of the victims. That I was not a victim has more to do with chance than the grace of God.