Spotlight Page #11

interested in the Church. You know

why? Because it takes an outsider.

Like me. I’m Armenian. How many

Armenians do you know in Boston?

MIKE:

Steve Kurkjian, works at the Globe.

GARABEDIAN:

That’s two! You should get a prize

or something. What are you, Italian?

MIKE:

Portuguese.

GARABEDIAN:

From where?

MIKE:

East Boston.

GARABEDIAN:

You don’t sound like it.

Mike shrugs. Garabedian shakes his head, chuckles.

GARABEDIAN (CONT’D)

This city, these people, making the

rest of us feel like we don’t

belong. But they’re no better than

us. Look how they treat their

children.

(wiping his mouth)

Mark my words, Mr. Rezendes, if it

takes a village to raise a child, it

takes a village to abuse one.

Garabedian eats. Mike ponders. Oddly moved.

77 INT. COPLEY SQUARE BALLROOM, ATRIUM - NIGHT 77

Robby crosses the room, joins Jim Sullivan at the bar.

JIM:

There he is.

They two men shake.

11/26/14 68.

JIM (CONT’D)

Wanna beer?

ROBBY:

Love one.

Jim nods to the bartender.

JIM:

You here with Barbara?

ROBBY:

No. She hates these things.

JIM:

Karen too. Smart ladies.

The bartender sets down two beers. Robby hands one to Jim.

ROBBY:

Sl.inte.

JIM:

I just met your new editor, seems

like a decent fella.

ROBBY:

I think he is.

(then)

I had an interesting conversation

with Eric MacLeish yesterday. Turns

out he’s been settling abuse cases

with the archdiocese for years.

JIM:

You really wanna talk about this

here?

ROBBY:

You said you helped out on Father

Barrett as a favor, that was a oneoff?

Jim doesn’t say anything. Robby DARKENS.

ROBBY (CONT’D)

How many of these cases have you

been involved with, Jim?

JIM:

You know I can’t answer that, Robby.

It’s unethical.

11/26/14 69.

ROBBY:

Is that all it is?

Jim stares Robby down. He drinks.

JIM:

So this is the Robby Robinson I’ve

always heard about but never met.

ROBBY:

Listen to me, Jimmy. You want to be

on the right side of this.

JIM:

You’re talking about the Church,

Robby. Look around. These are good

people who’ve done a lot of good for

this city.

(then)

Enjoy the party.

Jim smiles, heads into the party, leaving Robby alone at the

bar. Robby glances over at Marty, still on the edge of the

party. So this is what it feels like to be on the outside...

78 INT. GLOBE, ROBBY’S OFFICE - DAY 78

Matt, Sacha and Mike are crammed in Robby’s office, Matt

downloading the team on the directories.

MATT:

I’ve been through a lot of these.

‘Sick leave’ isn’t the only

designation they use when they take

one of these priests out of

circulation. They use a slew of

terms - ‘absent on leave,’

‘unassigned,’ ‘emergency response.’

MIKE:

They got a name for everything,

these guys.

SACHA:

Except rape.

A phone rings in the Spotlight office. Mike exits to get it.

MATT:

And they move parishes way more

frequently than other priests. When

I was a kid, a priest moved after

seven or eight years. These guys,

it’s two to three tops.

11/26/14 70.

SACHA:

Did they use these designations for

all of Saviano’s priests?

MATT:

Yeah. It’s a pretty clear pattern.

As Robby considers this, Mike calls from Spotlight --

MIKE:

Guys, I’ve got Sipe.

79 INT. GLOBE, SPOTLIGHT OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 79

The team is HUDDLED around a SPEAKERPHONE.

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

I think if you want to understand

the crisis, you need to start with

the celibacy requirement. That was

my first major finding: only 50% of

the clergy are celibate.

They share a look. 50%? Can that be true?

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE) (CONT’D)

Now, most of them are having sex

with other adults. But this creates

a culture of secrecy, that tolerates

and even protects pedophiles.

SACHA:

So you believe the church is aware

of the extent of this ‘crisis?’

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

Absolutely. After the first major

scandal in Louisiana, Tom Doyle, the

Secretary Canonist for the Papal

Nuncio, coauthored a report warning

pedophile priests were a billiondollar

liability. That was in 1985.

MIKE:

1985?

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

That’s right.

MIKE:

Who saw this document? Anyone in

the Catholic hierarchy?

11/26/14 71.

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

Sure. Doyle tried to introduce the

report at the National Conference of

Catholic Bishops. In fact, Cardinal

Law initially helped to fund the

report, but then he backed out and

they shelved it.

REZENDEZ:

(to Sacha and Matt)

Are you kidding me?

ROBBY:

Richard, Robby here. We think we

have thirteen priests in Boston that

fit this pattern, which would be a

very big story. Does that sound

right to you? In terms of scale?

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

No. Not really. It sounds low. My

estimates suggest six percent act

out sexually with minors.

MIKE:

Six percent of what?

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

Six percent of all priests.

Holy sh*t. Robby turns to the team.

ROBBY:

How many priests do we have in

Boston?

MATT:

About fifteen hundred. One percent

is fifteen... six percent is ninety.

ROBBY:

Ninety priests?

SACHA:

Is that possible?

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

From a metric standpoint, that would

be in line with my findings.

The team looks at each other. FLOORED. A beat, then --

SIPE (ON SPEAKERPHONE) (CONT’D)

Hello?

11/26/14 72.

80 INT. GLOBE, BEN’S OFFICE - DAY 80

Ben eats lunch, Robby and Mike download him. Ben’s shocked.

BEN:

Ninety f***ing priests? In Boston?

ROBBY:

That’s what he said.

BEN:

If there were ninety of these

bastards people would know.

MIKE:

Maybe they do.

BEN:

And no one said a thing?

MIKE:

Good Germans?

BEN:

I don’t think that’s a comparison

you want to make publicly.

ROBBY:

MacLeish knew and said nothing.

BEN:

That’s thirteen priests, big

difference between thirteen and

ninety. Where’s this guy Sipe

getting his numbers?

MIKE:

He’s studied this for thirty years,

he’s a trained psychotherapist --

BEN:

Okay, but we need something more

than a metric from some hippy expriest

who’s shacking up with a nun.

MIKE:

So we’ll track down more victims,

we’ll get more priests. Then we can

check them against the directories.

BEN:

That’s a shitload of victims.

11/26/14 73.

MIKE:

We’ll get them.

BEN:

How long’s it gonna take?

Mike shrugs. Robby considers. Then...

ROBBY:

Too long.

Robby gets up, moves for the door. Maybe with an idea.

BEN:

Meeting over?

ROBBY:

For now.

81 INT. GLOBE, NEWSROOM - MOMENTS LATER 81

Robby walks through the newsroom. Mike catches up to him.

MIKE:

What do you got?

ROBBY:

What if we work backwards?

MIKE:

What do you mean? From what?

ROBBY:

The directories. We’ve been using

them to confirm bad priests. What

if we do it the other way around?

MIKE:

(getting it)

Use the directories to identify bad

priests?

ROBBY:

Yeah, exactly. We search by

designation, we look for any priest

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