Vatican media praises ‘Spotlight’ as giving voice to victims

The Vatican newspaper praised Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” on Monday as having given voice to the “profound pain” of the faithful over the reality of clerical sex abuse, and insisted it’s not an anti-Catholic film.

Co-producer Blye Pagon Faust said the film gave her and the rest of the production team an insight to the importance of print media.

During his brief acceptance speech on Sunday, “Spotlight” producer Michael Sugar said he hoped the voices of the victims portrayed would “become a choir that would resonate all the way to the Vatican” and called on Pope Francis to protect children.

“It means there’s still faith in the institution, there’s faith in a pope who is continuing the cleanup started by his predecessor as cardinal”.

It’s the first film since 1952’s “The Greatest Show On Earth” to win the Best Picture category and only one other award. “Our message is, we hear you, you’re not alone, there’s no shame in this”, McCarthy said backstage at the Oscars, right after sharing the award for Original Screenplay with Singer.

“Spotlight” is the story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the Catholic Church, so would The Globe take advantage of the opportunity with a humble brag?

The Osservatore Romano said the film did not take a hostile position against the Church. “But it is now clear that, in the Church, too many people concerned themselves more with the image of the institution than the gravity of the act”. Ruffalo as well as the film’s director, Tom McCarthy and writer Josh Singer, joined about 20 SNAP members at the Los Angeles protest prior to the Academy Awards ceremony.

The film, in fact, shows the kind of devastation wrought on victims when “they don’t even have a God to plead with anymore, to ask for help”, it said. What remains to be seen is how much change, how much action happens under his guidance.