Vatican media praises Oscar winner ‘Spotlight’
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican newspaper praised Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” this week 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.
L’Osservatore Romano dedicated two articles in its Monday afternoon editions to the Academy Awards and the Best Picture won by “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s 2002 expose of the hundreds of Boston children who were raped and molested by Catholic priests and the church’s systematic cover-up of the crimes.
L’Osservatore quoted producer Michael Sugar’s acceptance speech– “Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith” – saying even his appeal was positive.
“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. And there’s still trust in a faith that has at its heart the defense of victims and the protection of innocents,” said the piece by Lucetta Scaraffia, one of L’Osservatore’s main columnists and the editor of its monthly edition on women’s issues.
Chinese pastor opposing cross removals is jailed
BEIJING – A Chinese husband and wife who led a Christian congregation that opposed a government campaign to remove crosses atop churches have been given long prison sentences for illegal activities, including corruption and disturbing social order, state media said.
A court in eastern Zhejiang province last week sentenced pastor Bao Guohua to 14 years in prison and his wife, Xing Wenxiang, to 12 years after concluding that they had illegally organized churchgoers to petition the government and disturb social order, according to the state-run Zhejiang Daily newspaper.
For the past two years, Zhejiang’s Christians, particularly in the coastal city of Wenzhou, home to a large Christian population, have been locked in a bitter dispute with local authorities who have removed hundreds of crosses from churches in the province, saying they violate building codes, or demolished churches altogether.
Associated Press
