Producer Michael Sugar called
on Pope Francis to "protect children and restore the faith" in
an Oscar acceptance speech for his movie Spotlight in Los
Angeles on Sunday.
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer's real-life drama traces the
Boston Globe's 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning investigation by a
team of journalists who expose a ring of pedophile priests.
Starring Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo,
the movie won best picture and best original screenplay.
Accepting the award, Sugar said he hoped the film's message
would "resonate all the way to the Vatican".
"Pope Francis: it's time to protect the children and
restore the faith," he said.
"This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar
amplifies that voice," said the producer from Open Road Films.
"We have to make sure this never happens again," said
McCarthy, who directed the film.
The head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy George
Pell testified late on Sunday to the Australian commission
investigating sex abuse of minors and admitted the Church had
committed "enormous mistakes" with regards to the abuse.
Speaking via video link from a Roman hotel, Pell said the
Church had "disappointed the faithful" and "caused serious
damage" but that it is "working to remedy" the mistakes.
The commission is investigating cases of abuse that
occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, when Pell was a priest in the
Ballarat diocese where abuse occurred.
Pell himself is not under investigation and has denied
knowing about the abuse.
His testimony is expected to last three or four days total,
and takes place from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. in Rome, which is 8 a.m.
to noon in Australia.
Fourteen abuse survivors flew to Rome to be present during
Pell's testimony, financed by a fundraiser that collected more
than 130,000 euros for the cause.
One of the those victims is David Ridsdale, nephew of
Gerald Ridsdale, a priest who is currently in prison for having
committed 138 counts of abuse against 53 victims.
Pell worked with Ridsdale in the Ballarat diocese.
Ridsdale's nephew has said in prior hearings that Pell not
only ignored the abuse but also tried to buy his silence.
Also on Monday, Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano wrote
that Spotlight is not an anti-Catholic film because "it does not
touch on Catholicism per se".
"It is undeniably a film with the courage to denounce cases
that must be condemned without hesitation... the fact that an
appeal to Pope Francis to combat this scourge came out of the
Oscars ceremony must be seen as a positive signal," the Vatican
daily wrote.
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