The SPOTLIGHT is on abusive priests
Here’s a handy reference from SNAP, highlighting some of the statistics about Priest Abuse in the Unites States.
SNAP prepared these flyers just in time for the opening of SPOTLIGHT, a movie I emailed my readers about a week ago. For those not yet on my mailing list (you can subscribe here) I’ve appended a copy of that email at the bottom of this post.
The idea is to print these flyers and make them available at the theater during showings of the film. Here’s the printable version from the SNAP website. But of course you can also use the information on each card and take action before you see the film. There’s a hotline number for help right on the front. And on the back, you’ll find out how to donate to help SNAP in their work of eradicating priest abuse and holding abusive priests accountable under the law.
SPOTLIGHT is entertainment done right
SPOTLIGHT is an important film about a team of journalists breaking the story of priest abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. It opened in several cities on November 6th and has been highly praised by film critics and viewers alike. This weekend it opens in the rest of the country, and you should go see it.
I was in the trenches, fighting my own personal battle against the ravages of priest abuse, at the time this story broke so it’s all very emotional for me. Some of the events I wrote about in my memoir, SPLIT, took place at the time in which the SPOTLIGHT story is set.
Now here’s the reprint of that message from SNAP.
SPOTLIGHT and SNAP
An Important Message from SNAP director, Barbara Dorris
Opening this Friday, November 6th, a highly acclaimed film called Spotlight will be shown across the US. It mentions SNAP, features an actor who plays New England SNAP founder/leader Phil Saviano and shows that SNAP played a big role in helping Boston Globe journalists investigate and expose clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Boston.
The paper published some 600 articles on the subject in one year, eventually exposing 249 predator priests in just one archdiocese.
Spotlight will re-focus millions of people’s attention on clergy sex abuse and cover ups. It could help bring other victims forward, victims who may still be trapped in silence, shame and self-blame. And it could help prod other journalists to look again, or look deeper, at this continuing crisis.
Please help us use this opportunity to get help for more victims and expose more cover ups.
Here are three quick and simple ways you can help:
- Please send these links to all your friends, family and contacts today. Urge them to see the movie and circulate this information:
- Link to a short ‘TRAILER’ or preview of the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56jw6tasomc
- Link to REVIEWS of the film: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/27/spotlight-film-illuminates-boston-clergy-abuse-sca/
- http://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/spotlight-review-michael-keaton-tom-mccarthy-venice-film-festival-1201580933/
- If you have a Facebook page or use other social media, please post both the trailer and the review there.
- Please send the trailer and review(s), with a short note, to any reporter or editor you may know at your local newspaper (or elsewhere). Encourage them to write about it and/or review it.
If you can do just a little more, here are three other ways to help:
- Please call the newspaper, ask who their film critic is, and send the same material directly to that journalist, urging him/her to review the film.
- Please consider contacting journalism professors and/or groups like Call To Action and Voice of the Faithful. Urge them to organize panel discussions about the film and the crisis. Offer to come and speak or to help find others who would.
- Please consider, just for a few weeks, changing the “signature line” of your email to something like this: “Go see Spotlight, the new film about the church’s abuse crisis. Spread the word! It opens in theaters across the US on November 6)”
Thanks for your help,
Barbara Dorris
www.snapnetwork.org
SNAP · PO Box 6416, Chicago, IL 60680-6416, United States
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