‘SPOTLIGHT’ REMINDS US NOT TO FORGET

I am a cradle Catholic.  I’ve had my differences with the church, but I will never consider myself anything but a Catholic.  I have spent enough time with priests and nuns to have a strong affinity, no, love, for them.  As a child I thought they were as close to God as one could get; as an adult I have personally known too many phenomenal men and women of the cloth to have anything but tremendous gratitude and respect for those who devote their lives to the church.

However.  I also have one of those six-degrees-of-separation things with the Massachusetts part of what we now know is the world-wide scandal of priests abusing kids. I am personally familiar with the facts that in the early 1960’s, Father Porter of North Attleboro was caught having been “inappropriate” with a young boy from his parish and it was shoved under the rug by local church officials.  Father Porter was sent to some kind of lame therapy, then moved to another parish and that was the end of it.  An isolated incident that was quickly dispatched.  One bad apple, gone, and it was filed away by all those involved as, “we took care of it, and won’t discuss it any further.”

Years later victims blew the lid off the secret and it came to light that Porter had been moved to parishes all over the country many times, and was a serial pedophile who had abused hundreds of children.  Ultimately, justice was finally done and Porter was remanded to prison. Again, it was viewed as one bad apple.

However.  It took years, but what was eventually discovered, and the Boston Globe investigated and reported, was that the Father Porter story was the tip of the iceberg.  Abuse of children by priests was widespread in Massachusetts for decades.  It was a culture of depravity that was widely known and understood among members of the church, who, if not participating, looked the other way.  “Spotlight” tells the story of the journalists who courageously uncovered and reported this, daring to take on the powerful members of the Boston Catholic hierarchy.

“Spotlight” winning the Oscar means that more people will see the movie, and Catholics will be reminded of something we sorta hoped would go away.  But it hasn’t.   Investigations into priest abuse of children have continued to turn up horror stories in other parts of the country and the world.  And we must not lose sight of the fact there are children now grown who were warped by abuse. Where are they today?  Many have had  ruined lives.  Some are dead by their own hands. Even those of us who were not abused will not get over knowing that those God reps on earth we trusted could be capable of such evil. It helps only a little that the church has since put safeguards in place to screen and supervise anyone who would work with children in Catholic schools and programs, because we know that abuse continues anyway. For all of us, including non-Catholics, it is a reminder that powerful institutions have it in their interest to preserve their reputations and positions of power.  The ramifications of that, as it may apply to vulnerable populations, should give us all pause.

“Spotlight: has done a great service.  See it.