The Oscar-winning film Spotlight was praised by the Vatican’s newspaper as giving a voice to the “profound pain” felt by Catholics during the horrific worldwide child sexual-abuse scandal that hit the church. L’Osservatore Romano said Michael Sugar’s acceptance speech, during which he said, “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith,” was evidence that the film was not “anti-Catholic.” The newspaper reportedly agreed with Sugar’s statement, adding that it showed a continued faith in the church and in the pontiff himself. Spotlight is about the Boston Globe’s series of investigative articles in 2002 that exposed the fact that there were hundreds of children who were sexually abused by Catholic priests who were moved from parish to parish, in addition to the church’s decades-long coverup of the many crimes.
