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How does one of the world’s most dominant religions attempt to reconcile its longstanding troubles when a new film continues to shed light on them? It’s no secret that the Catholic Church has had more than its share of criticisms, from its controversial stances on homosexuality and divorce to its treatment of women. Arguably, the Church’s most pressing concern continues to be its ongoing response to the highly publicized sex abuse scandal, initially brought to light by The Boston Globe in January 2002. This journalistic investigation is the subject of Spotlight (2015), the new film from Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) about the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of journalists that exposed the scandal and the Church’s organized cover-up of abuse by priests over many decades.

In 2001, the Globe’s Spotlight division, a blue-chip team of four investigators led by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton), was tasked by the newspaper’s new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), to shift focus from its previous investigation to work exclusively on the Church scandal. The ensuing months-long investigation, which began with a single priest, exploded to proportions beyond anyone’s expectations. Moreover, the journalists proved that Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, was aware of the abuse and opted not to bring it to light. Instead, he choreographed a shift of suspected priests from one parish to another in hopes that the misconduct would be swept under the rug. (After Law resigned due to the scandal, he received a prestigious appointment in Rome.)

So how will the film impact public perceptions of the Church? For the most part, people’s minds are made up about the Catholic Church, one way or another. Moreover, Spotlight is not attempting to drive churchgoers from their congregation. While thorough in its coverage of the true story that nearly toppled an institution to which 1.2 billion people belong, the film offers nothing new about the scandal beyond what’s long been known—and that’s okay, because new information or altering people’s feelings about religion is not McCarthy’s intention. It appears McCarthy aims primarily to capture and examine this critical moment in time by dramatizing the hearbreaking discovery of the scandal for the big screen. With the intrepid Globe taking on the Catholic Church, this film is a story of “Goliath versus Goliath,” as McCarthy puts it. McCarthy takes a somewhat sterile approach to his filmmaking, leaving personal opinions out of the equation. There’s no agenda here in regards to how the public should feel about the scandal. Rather, the story is told in a matter-of-fact manner from the perspective of the Spotlight team, much the way it would be reported in a newspaper. Spotlight is a tribute to the workmanship and courage of the journalism that brought the story to light, wile the film reveals, piece by piece, the shocking scale of the abuse that scarred so many communities around the world. (A title card at the end of the film lists all the communities that uncovered abuse by priests, and the effect of seeing the number of cities listed together is deeply shocking, even if we know this information intellectually.)

But even if the film creates a more emotional response for viewers who are already familiar with the facts, the time that has passed since the Globe’s investigation (nearly 15 years) means that we are living in a different religious landscape. The Catholic church of today must continue to atone for and address its past sins, but much has changed in the church’s makeup, and most who would leave the church have already done so. According to a 2009 report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an estimated one in 10 American Catholic adults has left the Church. More recently, The Guardian reported in September 2015 that approximately 32 million Catholics have broken with the Church in recent decades. Although these figures don’t specify to what extent these decisions to leave were directly tied to the sex abuse scandal, it’s safe to say the revelation of the abuse and the scale of its cover-up shook the faith of many faithful.

Those who left the Church as a result of the scandal will likely continue to keep their distance. Those who remained faithful will likely continue to be. Spotlight will serve as a reminder of the pain that many experienced, but it’s doubtful that anyone has forgotten, and the beleaguered Catholic Church is worse off for it.

Enter Pope Francis. Since the Pontiff’s election in 2013, the first non-European Pope in 1,272 years has been making tidal waves with his progressive words and actions, speaking out about climate change, pronouncing “Who am I to judge?” in regards to homosexuality and even referring to the gender-based pay gap as “pure scandal.” He’s viewed as a rock star among left-leaning Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and his heavily lauded recent visit to the United States is a clear indication.

Most impressively, Pope Francis’ messages of love, acceptance, and fairness are hitting the mark with lapsed Catholics who now feel they have a reason to return to the Church. Perhaps to those people, the story at the center of Spotlight represents the past from which they are trying to move on, and Pope Francis represents a new direction and new hope for the faithful. The Church must continue to address its past wrongs and help those in need of healing, but Spotlight is unlikely to interfere with the vision Pope Francis has begun to establish. Pope Francis’ Church is, many believe, a new entity that leaves behind the Cardinal Law’s of the old days.