The behaviour of some priests of the Archdiocese of Boston was sick, sinful and criminal – utterly reprehensible and deserving condemnation.

And as happened in so many, other dioceses across the world the way victims were treated is equally reprehensible.

Yet again, efforts to stop the truth being told is something that happened in many cases.

The Catholic Church has been holding its head in shame ever since.

The damage done to its credibility is something that will take a long time to put right and for wounds to heal.

The movie ‘Spotlight,’ now on release in cinemas, tells the story of what happened in Boston.

It follows the investigation in 2002 by reporters of the Boston Globe as they try to uncover this sordid story in painstaking detail and with dogged determination.

Many years ago I met Kevin Cullen, one of the Globe’s best known journalists.

He interviewed me during a visit to Boston about being a priest during what we now call ‘’The Troubles’’.

I found him fair and reasonable. I have come across his reaction to the movie Spotlight in a recent column he wrote for his paper called ‘When the truth ends up on the editing room floor’.

That title says it all. He takes the case of Jack Dunn who, after seeing the movie, stepped outside the cinema and threw up.

It sickened him because it portrayed him as someone who made little of the suffering of the abused and as someone involved in the cover up.

“The things they had me saying,” I never said. “The dialogue is completely fabricated and represents the opposite of who I am and what I did to help the victims.”

The fact is that he drew up a plan to address the allegations with transparency and compassion.

But real life usually is not dramatic enough for the silver screen.

Artistic licence means that they can put words in your mouth ‘to serve a larger truth, as they call it.

In other words, they can fabricate events and people because it does not say in the credits ‘’this is a true story’ but ‘based on a true story’ -the word ‘based’ means you can stretch the truth like a bit of elastic.

Perhaps the credits should also add “we reserve the right to make it up,” Kevin says in his article.

There is, for example, a character called Pete Conleyan, an influential businessman who acts as a fixer for the diocese. However he is a total fabrication.

There is no such person in real life. A close friend remarked to me after seeing the movie, ‘we all know there were good people there too - why were their voices not heard?’

Spotlight has been rightly praised for the way it captures the painstaking detail of what reporters do, receiving six well deserved Oscar nominations.

It gets the journalism right but may have created another victim.

Kevin Cullen reports: ‘When I talked to Jack Dunn last week, it was obvious that he was emotionally and physically wrecked by the way he’s portrayed in the film.

“At one point he cried, describing how at school his son, felt compelled to stand up and defend him in front of his classmates before they went as a class to see the film.’

Last October, when the film was first released, Cardinal O’Malley issued a statement saying that the film, “depicts a very painful time in the history of the diocese.

“We have asked for and continue to ask for forgiveness from all those harmed by the crimes of the abuse of minors. We are completely committed to zero tolerance concerning such abuse,” he said.

He is one of Pope Francis’ team of close advisors.

When he was appointed to Boston in 2003 the first thing he did was to sell the palatial bishop’s house.

The first group he met was the abuse survivors, giving the money raised to their support fund.

With men like this behind the wheel perhaps we can have some hope in the future. It may not be all bad news.

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