A team of reporters finds a terrible secret that the Catholic Church hid for years. Every part of this story really happened.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–10) to its meaning (A–J). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is F" — then check.
1 = F (a priest) · 2 = D (a church) · 3 = J (a lawyer) · 4 = B (a reporter) · 5 = H (a secret)
6 = G (to hide) · 7 = A (to find out) · 8 = I (a court) · 9 = E (brave) · 10 = C (the truth)
Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, this is real history and we want to talk about it. This is a serious subject, so the film — and this lesson — focus on the reporters and the cover-up, not on the abuse itself.)
In 2001, a newspaper in Boston gets a new boss. His name is Marty. He is new to the city, and he is not Catholic — that is unusual in Boston. One day, Marty reads a small story in another newspaper. A lawyer says that a priest hurt children for many years, and that Church leaders knew about it. Marty asks a small team of reporters, called Spotlight, to look into this properly.
The team is not sure at first. They think it is a sad story about one bad priest. But Marty also asks them to do something bigger: to go to court and ask for secret Church documents. Slowly, the reporters start to talk to grown-ups who were hurt as children. They hear the same story again and again: a priest, a quiet complaint, and then — instead of trouble for the priest — a move to a new church, where no one is told anything.
1. Who is Marty, and what does he ask the reporters to do?
2. What same story do the reporters hear again and again?
1. He's the newspaper's new boss; he asks the Spotlight team to properly investigate a lawyer's claim that a priest abused children and that Church leaders knew.
2. A priest hurts a child, someone complains quietly, and the priest is simply moved to a new church, with no warning to anyone there.
The reporters look through old Church lists and files. One reporter, Matt, builds a list of priests who were often marked "away" or "sick" for strange periods of time. Slowly, the list of names grows — not two or three priests, but many more. This makes the reporters feel sick, too.
The Church does not want to help. Its lawyers fight to keep the important documents secret. Some people in the city do not want to believe the story and don't want to talk. Then, on the very morning the team is ready to push harder, a terrible thing happens: the attacks of September 11, 2001. The whole newspaper must stop and cover that instead, for months.
When the team comes back to the story later, they realise something hard: their own newspaper had small pieces of this story years before — and didn't follow them. Now, they must do it properly.
1. How does Matt help the team see how big the problem really is?
2. What makes the reporters stop working on the story for months?
1. He builds a list from Church records, finding priests often marked "away" in ways that match the years of the alleged abuse — showing this is a pattern, not one case.
2. The September 11 attacks; the whole newspaper has to cover that story instead.
In January 2002, the newspaper is ready. It prints the true story — not about one priest, but about a whole system that protected many priests for years. The story names the leader of the Boston Church, Cardinal Law, directly, showing that he knew and did nothing.
After the story, many more people call the newspaper. Many of them have never told anyone about what happened to them before. Every week, the newspaper prints new stories, and the number of priests involved grows — from a few, to dozens, and then to many more.
By the end of 2002, Cardinal Law resigns. The story does not stay only in Boston: other cities, and other countries, start asking the same hard questions about their own churches.
1. What does the newspaper's first story, in January 2002, prove?
2. What happens after the story is printed?
1. It proves that Cardinal Law and Church leaders knew about the abuse and moved priests instead of stopping them.
2. Many more people come forward, the number of priests involved grows, and Cardinal Law resigns before the end of the year.
This film is full of things that happened in the past but still matter now. English uses the present perfect for this, with some useful little words: ever, never, just, already and yet.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence with the correct word.
1. Have you read a news story that shocked you? (asking about experience, any time before now)
2. The team has spoken to ten survivors — they are still adding more names. (sooner than expected)
3. The newspaper hasn't printed the story . (not happened, but it might soon)
1. ever (experience, any time before now)
2. already (sooner than expected)
3. yet (not happened yet, but might soon)
Put the verb in the correct form after have/has. Then read it out loud.
1. I have never (meet) a real lawyer.
2. She has just (find) an old newspaper article.
3. Have you ever (read) about a big secret coming out?
1. met (past participle)
2. found (past participle)
3. read (past participle — same spelling as base form)
Fill each gap with ever, never, already or yet. Read it aloud when you finish.
Marty looks at the file. "Have you read this?" he asks Robby. "No," says Robby, "but I have heard the name before — from a lawyer, years ago." "Well," says Marty, "the reporters have found ten more names, and they haven't finished ."
ever · never · already · yet
Use ever in questions about experience, never for "at no time," already when something happened sooner than expected, and yet in negatives and questions about something that hasn't happened.
Here is the important part: this is not just a film. It really happened, almost exactly like this.
A real newspaper, the Boston Globe, had a real new boss called Marty Baron in 2001. He really did ask a small team of reporters, called Spotlight, to investigate. The lawyer in the story, Mitchell Garabedian, was real too, and he had spent years trying to make people listen.
The reporters did not just believe one story. They used old Church records to find a pattern: many priests were often marked "away" in the same strange way. They also fought in court to see secret documents. Only when many different people, who had never met each other, told the same story did the newspaper feel sure enough to print it.
The Boston Globe printed its first story on 6 January 2002. Over that year, the number of priests involved in Boston grew to about 249, and more than 1,000 people said they had been abused. Cardinal Law resigned in December 2002. In 2003, the Spotlight team won the Pulitzer Prize — the biggest prize in journalism — for this work. Other cities and countries then started asking the same questions about their own churches.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Spotlight in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a new boss asks a question → reporters hear the same secret pattern again and again → they build a list and fight in court, but September 11 stops everything for months → the true story is printed in 2002 → many more people come forward and the Cardinal resigns.
Try to use some key words (priest, church, lawyer, reporter, secret, hide, find out, court, brave, truth) and the present perfect with ever / never / just / already / yet.
The reporters attack the city's most loved and trusted institution, knowing it will upset many people. Was this the right thing to do? What would you do if you found out something bad about a place or group that people around you love and trust?
Talk about trust and secrets. Use the present perfect.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: