Glare of the “Spotlight”

Oscar season is upon us, and one of the Best Picture nominees is a film that hits pretty close to home for us at Reveal: “Spotlight.” In case you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a movie about The Boston Globe’s investigative team that exposed the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.  

In this hour of Reveal, we’re going to take you behind the scenes of that investigation, look at the legacy of the groundbreaking story and see how other journalists went on to expose more crimes by Catholic priests around the world. 

First up, we tell you what happened after the “Spotlight” movie ended and how The Boston Globe continued to expose cover-ups in the Catholic Church.

In the second segment, Minnesota Public Radio exposes a priest abuse scandal in the Twin Cities, more than a decade after The Globe’s original investigation. Reporter Madeleine Baran spent two years looking into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and uncovered how the church had been making secret payments to known abusers while continuing to conceal clergy sexual abuse from the public. 

And finally, Global Post reporter Will Carless takes us to Latin America on the trail of priests who fled the U.S. after being accused of sexually abusing children. 

Note: This episode contains graphic content related to child sexual abuse. 

Reveal is a weekly radio program produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. For more, check out our website and subscribe to our podcast.