Vatican newspaper praises ‘Spotlight’ as giving voice to abuse victims

The Vatican newspaper said the Oscar-winning film, “Spotlight,” is not anti-Catholic.

L’Osservatore Romano published a piece titled “It’s not an anti-Catholic film” on Tuesday morning, praising Tom McCarthy’s film for “managing to voice the shock and profound pain of the faithful confronting the discovery of these horrendous realities”.

“Predators do not necessarily wear ecclesiastical vestments, and pedophilia does not necessarily stem from the vow of chastity” cautioned the editorial’s author, Lucetta Scaraffia. “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.”

When Spotlight won Best Picture this past Sunday, producer Michael Sugar took the Oscar stage and addressed the pope directly, saying, “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.”

L’Osservatore Romano‘s acknowledgment not only of the film but of Sugar’s plea does little in the way of inspiring confidence that the church will take further, more serious action against those who have committed these crimes and ruined lives, but props to the paper for acknowledging the success of the film rather than ignoring its existence, which would’ve been just as easy to do.

Agencies/Canadajournal