This is a column that started out as a forum — regrettably, one I intended to facilitate but never did, around the movie and play “Doubt,” which ends its Duluth Playhouse run this afternoon.

Instead, I’ve asked national experts and locals familiar with the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal to weigh in on the play’s treatment of the subject. If you’ve yet to see the play or movie be warned: This is a plot-spoiler.

The play centers around the suspicions of Sister Aloysius, a Catholic school principal in 1964 New York, that a new, affable priest is molesting a 12-year-old boy.

The boy is the school’s first black kid. His mother, told by the nun of her worries, is reluctant to make waves and reveals her son is gay. Writing off church higher-ups as indifferent, Sister Aloysius confronts the priest directly, lying that she has called his previous parishes and confirmed other abuse cases. He panics, and immediately gets himself reassigned — only to be promoted to head another parish, leaving Sister Aloysius, in the end, with “doubts.”

How realistic is all this? In my years of covering the scandal in Boston and the Twin Ports, I have come across one notable crusading nun, but few others. But others have different impressions:

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests: “A few church employees … stand up to and/or report suspected or known pedophile priests. Of the few who do report known or suspected child sex crimes, they don’t often persist like this nun did.”

The Rev. William C. Graham, College of St. Scholastica: “The sisters and nuns are the giants in our Earth. I am preaching about that [today] at the monastery in Duluth … So, yes, I find it realistic.”

Mitchell Garabedian, Boston lawyer who has won millions from the church: “Long before either version of ‘Doubt’ came out, I realized during and after discovery that the nuns were protecting priests’ reputations. Nuns just would not say anything negative about priests’ conduct.”

Ann Hagan Webb, New England director of SNAP: “How I wish the nuns at my school would have tried to save me! I always blamed them almost as much as him, since they so willingly sent me to ‘help’ at the rectory whenever he asked.”

Does the play promote stereotypes by defining the child as gay?

Webb: “I was insulted by the inference that this had to do with the boy’s innate homosexuality. … As always, I have to point out that 30 percent [of victims are] female.

Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota director of SNAP: “A prepubescent 12-year-old doesn’t … have the foggiest idea what gay or hetero is. The sexual abuse I survived was as a prepubescent between the ages of 7 to 11. I still vividly remember [church lawyers] asking me during the deposition if ‘I enjoyed it?’”

Graham: “I think the issue with the child is more about inept parenting than an issue of abuse as a problem growing from homosexuality. … There is plenty of blame to go around; the bishops, of course, but also in our local parishes.”

Is the mother’s reaction realistic? What about the role of race?

Gary Schoener, psychologist at the Walk-in Counseling Center in Minneapolis, who has treated hundreds of abuser priests: “So often, parents don’t believe the kid or don’t have the guts to take on a priest or the church. I would say that 5 percent take them on, 5 percent might have something in common with the case in ‘Doubt,’ and 90 percent involve either not believing the kid or not wanting to push the issue.”

Tom Bothwell, Two Harbors: “Many years ago, I had to fend off advances from a priest. I sometimes wondered what response I would have gotten had I asked for adult help. … I felt the mother was hesitant to say anything because she felt the black and gay status of her son would make it so he would never go on to a good school.”

Teresa Shanley, niece of convicted, now-defrocked Boston priest Paul Shanley: “I think she was heartbroken over it, but it was a different time … If it was a white kid, would the mother be so accepting of the behavior?”

Shanley, ironically, is also the name of playwright John Patrick Shanley. It’s unclear whether they’re related, though Teresa says she’d like to write the author about the “doubt” at the end.

“Leaving the theater, I was hearing people who just didn’t get it,” she said of the interpretation that the nun had second thoughts about whether the abuse took place.

“I don’t believe that she had doubt about the priest. She was certain the priest had done what she thought. What she doubted was her faith.”

Proctor’s Verne Wagner hasn’t seen ‘Doubt’ but has his own story of nuns ignoring his abuse from a priest. In another irony, he’s written a play about it and may take it to the Playhouse, where he’s acted in a number of productions.

“It’s about drug abuse, all of the abandonment issues, puberty, sexuality,” he said. “One of these days, I’m going to [produce] it, I’m just not sure when.”

When he does, we need to have a forum. For real this time.

Robin Washington is news director of the News Tribune. Disclosure: Washington is a board member of the Duluth Playhouse. He may be reached at rwashington@duluthnews.com.