I saw the movie 'Spotlight' Saturday night.
If you're not familiar with it, it's a journalism movie. More specifically, a newspaper movie. It tells the story of how a team of reporters at the Boston Globe tackled the massive issue of abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese.
The movie made me proud of what I do. It also made me incredibly sad.
This is not a easy movie to watch, especially if you are Catholic. That would include me, a former altar boy. It does not paint the church - in particular the leaders of the Boston Archdiocese, in an especially good light.
I know a little bit about that. I have written at length about the same situation here in the Philadelphia archdiocese. In fact, Monsignor William Lynn, the highest church official ever charged and convicted in the church handling (some would say blatant cover-up) of church abuse. He was my pastor at St. Joe's in Downingtown. Suffice it to say much of what I wrote was not especially well-received by my fellow parishioners.
One woman made her feelings pretty clear, sending me an email and urging me to "stay up in Delaware County where you belong." Nice Christian sentiment there, no?
There were times in the movie that I was near tears, knowing what the church did for years. Yes, I can admit it has caused me to question my faith, and the people who lead it. No, I have not stopped going to Mass. I do that for myself, not for any edict that tells me I must attend the celebration every week.
The movie also did a very good job of capturing something every person who has worked in the newspaper racket knows all too well. It's not always the most pleasant job. You deal with a lot of depressing topics. You're never really off work. Especially now as we toil in an online world, it's a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year gig.
It also takes a huge toll on your personal life. You'd better have a partner who understands what that really means. Marriages - and relationships - are actually a threesome. There is you, your friend or spouse, and your significant other. That would be your job.
I was reminded of that just a few minutes before I went into the movie Saturday night. I checked my email. It's a bad habit, one that also takes a toll of its own.
That's when I learned that a volunteer firefighter from Delaware County had been killed in a crash. It was a big story. We jumped on it on Saturday, getting the details of the crash that claimed the life of Aston firefighter Scott Jones. Then today we followed with full reaction from his devastated colleagues and family.
Like I said, a lot of what we report every day is not what you would call positive news.
But it is important news.
Just ask any of the victims of priest abuse.
Or anybody who worked with or knew Scott Jones.
That is the other lesson of 'Spotlight.' It reminds us, in these perilous days for the journalism business, of what we are in danger of losing.
I don't think it's a secret that these are tough days for newspapers. We are undergoing seismic changes in how we deliver news. Layoffs are now seemingly part of the daily headlines we deliver.
There are a lot fewer people at the Boston Globe today than at the time depicted in this movie, circa 2001. The same goes for this newspaper.
I hope we did Scott Jones proud. I assure you it was not an easy story to report. Emotions are raw. People are grieving.
It's a different kind of story than church abuse, obviously. That's the thing about news, you never really know on any given day what you will have to tackle.
I really only know one thing that's pretty much a sure thing when it comes to my daily work. I know that every day I will very likely make a lot of people unhappy.
There is something else that is often said about journalists. We should afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.
As I walked out of the movie, I reached for my phone to check on the status of the story on the crash that took the life of Scott Jones. At the same time, I was again dealing with the fallout of so much about what I, among so many others, had written about the Catholic church.
Afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.
Seems about right.
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