UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Dennis Coday | Feb. 24, 2014 NCR Today
PBS’ award winning news and documentary program, “Frontline,” is to air tomorrow night (Feb. 25) “Secrets of the Vatican,” from British director Antony Thomas and co-producer Jason Berry, a name that should be well-known to NCR readers.
Most PBS stations will broadcast the show Tuesday, February 25, at 9 p.m. eastern time, but check your local TV listings to get the correct time.
Here’s how a press release I got describes the show:
“Secrets of the Vatican” illuminates the challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the Church.
“The documentary tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict papacy, from a far-reaching clergy sex abuse scandal, to money laundering and corruption at the Vatican Bank, to power struggles and cronyism within the Holy See, to hypocrisy within the Vatican when it comes to homosexuality.”
Work on the film began more than a year ago. Berry talks about his involvement with the project in an interview with his hometown newspaper, New Orleans’ The Times-Picayune. Here’s Berry’s synopsis of the film:
“The film takes viewers into the Vatican’s baroque internal dynamics”
“The infighting under Pope Benedict that exploded in the Vatican Bank and Vatileaks scandals”
“Viewers will get a clear story of the last pope betrayed by his own bureaucracy.
“Antony’s treatment of the gay priest culture in the Vatican — an explosive topic to be sure — is nuanced and even-handed, certainly not homophobic.”
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