UNITED STATES
Vanity Fair
“We continue to seek the forgiveness of all who have been harmed by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse.”
BY JULIE MILLER
Upon winning best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, Spotlight producer Michael Sugar used the stage to send a message to the Vatican. Speaking about the drama, which chronicles The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation into the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse cover-up, Sugar said, “This film gave a voice to survivors and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican.” Appealing to the church’s leader, he added, “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.”
Spotlight specifically addresses the archdiocese of Boston’s elaborate cover-up of sexual abuse. And in the hours after the film’s best-picture win, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, Boston’s current archbishop, released a lengthy statement acknowledging the film’s importance, crediting it for helping the Church confront its failings, and describing how the archdiocese has implemented policies and procedures to prevent those tragedies from happening again.
The complete statement ahead, per The Pilot:
Spotlight is an important film for all impacted by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse. By providing in-depth reporting on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the media led the Church to acknowledge the crimes and sins of its personnel and to begin to address its failings, the harm done to victims and their families and the needs of survivors. In a democracy such as ours, journalism is essential to our way of life. The media’s role in revealing the sexual abuse crisis opened a door through which the Church has walked in responding to the needs of survivors.
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