A Vatican newspaper praised Spotlight, and the whole world is surprised. In a lengthy article posted in the L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican applauded the people behind the Oscar-winning movie for shedding light on the horrific rapes perpetrated by priests in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 2000s.
An official Vatican newspaper applauded Spotlight – the Academy-Award winning movie, which focused on the countless children sexually abused at the hands of priests in Boston, Massachusetts – needless to say many are baffled by the reaction.
On Tuesday, a lengthy article published in L’Osservatore Romano, with the surprising title “It’s not an anti-Catholic film,” revealed that officials are happy that writer and director Tom McCarthy was able “to voice the shock and profound pain of the faithful confronting the discovery of these horrendous realities.”
The biographical crime drama film, which starred Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci follows The Boston Globe‘s “Spotlight” team – an operating newspaper investigative journalist unit, which exposed the child sex abuse cases in the Boston area by numerous Roman Catholic priests in 2001.
It is based on a series of stories by the actual Spotlight Team of reporters, who were awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In the piece written by Lucetta Scaraffia, the church called the film a “positive sign that shows there is trust in a pope who is continuing the cleanup begun by his predecessor.”
Scaraffia went on to insist that the Catholic faith has at its heart “the defense of victims, the protection of the innocent… but too many in the church was more worried about the image of the institution than the seriousness of the act (of child abuse).”
According to the article, bishops have been encouraging others to watch Spotlight and “take seriously its central message, which is that the Catholic Church can and must be transparent, just and committed to fighting abuse.” However, at the end of the article, the newspaper took a shot at Singer’s decision not to mention Pope Benedict XVI‘s “long and tenacious battle” against pedophile priests, but acknowledged that “there was not enough time to explore every detail of the scandal.”
Spotlight won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay on Sunday and during his acceptance speech producer Michael Sugar said: “… the film gave voice to survivors, a voice he hopes will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican and restore the faith.”
Recently McCarthy shared that while Pope Francis is “forward-thinking, inclusive, progressive and reform-minded, there is a long way to go to address the issue adequately and only time will tell how much change, how much action happens under his guidance.”
