I first watched "Spotlight" to see what the fuss was about. I hadn't even heard of the movie when it won Best Picture, but hey, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams sounds like a recipe for all sorts of awesome.

I should begin by stating this film is an absolute standout. There is no doubt in my mind of why it won Best Picture. Never before had I seen a film that even attempted to address the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. It shows how a seemingly simple case turned into hundreds of the same case — hundreds of children being sexually abused and not speaking out until years later. "Spotlight" tells the story about how investigative journalists (the Spotlight team) from The Boston Globe released a story in 2002 highlighting the sexual abuse coverup by the Catholic Church in the Boston area. And I highly suggest seeing the film before reading any further. It's worth your time.

Perhaps the most interesting and disturbing scene in this film for me was when Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) goes to the home of a former priest, Father Paquin, to interview him. She asks him about the sexual acts he was accused of, and he continues on to explain how he "never raped anyone," and "should make that clear." He continues saying how he "never felt gratified" himself, but very openly admits to molesting children. When asked how he should know he didn't rape anyone, he replies with, "I was raped." This scene is troublesome, yes, but it is one of the scenes in the film that touches on the psychology of these priests.

I should disclose a little bit about myself before I go further. I grew up Catholic and went to a Catholic school for nine years. I was bullied significantly during the time I attended Catholic school, but I did feel the one person at my school who actually cared that I was being bullied was our priest. Regardless of the fact that my parents had him over for dinner often and that him and my grandmother were good friends, he made me feel like I still mattered — even after years of bullying by classmates. And then I went off to college and stopped practicing Catholicism, only to discover he had been accused of sexual abuse — and transferred to another parish. Whether or not the allegations are true is a different story for a different day. And I'm not here to talk about my former pastor's innocence, let me make that clear. I'm here to talk about the trend I saw within my own diocese and the one we saw in "Spotlight" — the transfer of priests from one parish to another after accusations — is not solving any problems. But any reasonable person could figure that out.

The Davenport Diocese (Iowa, my former diocese) went bankrupt in October 2006 due to several allegations against priests in the Davenport diocese for sexual abuse. According to bishop-accountability.org, accused priests have worked at over 40 percent of Davenport parishes. Disturbing documents like this were made available to the general public via Bishop Accountability. The Davenport Diocese is also the only diocese except for Boston where a judge ordered a major release of church files in lieu of sexual abuse allegations. But hey, that's probably a different story for a different day, too.

"Spotlight" is an insightful, disturbing, interesting and eloquently produced film. You don't have to be Catholic or even a former practicing Catholic to find this film highly impactful. We desperately need more attention brought upon the issue of sexual abuse, not just in our churches, but everywhere.