Join the legacy: Shining a spotlight on 'impenetrable institutions'

As part of IRE's 50th anniversary and spring member drive, we’re sharing some of the biggest moments in investigative journalism since 1975. 

(April 15, 2025) — When most people think of investigative journalism, they think of “Spotlight.” 

The biopic follows The Boston Globe’s investigative unit as it uncovers decades of sex abuse by priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and how church leaders covered it up. The original newspaper series was published more than 20 years ago, by reporters Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes and editor Walter V. Robinson.

How did a team of journalists expose an institution as renowned and secretive as the Catholic Church?

“The Catholic Church was an unconventional target for the Spotlight Team,” Sacha Pfeiffer wrote for The IRE Journal in 2003. “For much of its (history), Spotlight had carried out its mission of exposing corruption by taking on municipal and government institutions, like bad cops, crooked politicians and corrupt public agencies. 

At the same time, newspapers across the country had been writing stories for years about clergy sex abuse … but most of those stories focused on isolated cases of abuse, and on the actions of individual priests rather than church officials.”

But in 2001, when newly-named editor Martin Baron arrived at the Globe, he carried with him a story by Globe columnist Eileen McNamara that said records in a child sex abuse lawsuit against Cardinal law and other church officials had been sealed by a judge. If the case were settled out of court, common practice at the time, the records would “never see the light of day.”

Baron asked the Spotlight Team to investigate, and asked the Globe’s attorney to assess the chances of overturning the judge’s order. The Catholic Church would never be the same. 

The Spotlight team spent months researching the Boston archdiocese, interviewing victims, and digging through church records and directories. The newspaper’s legal arm fought to get those court documents unsealed. Their first story, “Church allowed abuse by priest for years” (2002) made an unprecedented impact in Boston and beyond. 

Rezendes reflected on the series for Spotlight’s 50 year anniversary, telling The Globe in 2021 that they were expecting protests when the story was published. They were surprised when, instead, they were met with an outpouring of calls from readers and other victims.

“It was like a dam bursting,” Rezendes said. “Suddenly, all these victims realized, ‘Hey, I’m not the only one.’ What happened in Boston that week reverberated around the world, with literally tens of thousands of victims coming forward.” 

Pfeiffer explained the team’s reporting process and her shared her reflections in The IRE Journal, writing in 2003: 

“The story has been a refreshing reminder that newspapers should not shy away from questioning even society’s most revered institutions. It also has renewed our belief that there are always ways to extract information from seemingly impenetrable institutions.

Throughout this project, our extensive contact with victims has demonstrated the immense value of reaching out to readers, who are often rich repositories of information. And our investigation has taught us that there is no substitute for documents to prove a case of this magnitude. In the end, the church’s own files were its downfall, and the Globe’s decision to go to court to unseal them was worth the resources it took to do so. Other newspapers would be well-served to do the same.”

Read Sacha Pfeiffer’s IRE Journal column here. 

The article has been made publicly available from the IRE Resource Center, which is home to thousands of journalism tipsheets, stories, audio recordings and other resources to help enhance your reporting. The Resource Center is available for free to IRE members, and it's just one of our many member benefits!

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