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Saturday, October 24, 2015

I AGREE WITH VATICAN RADIO ON THIS ONE!

 When this horrible story was breaking in 2002 I was new at reading things on the internet but the stories from the Boston Globe concerning what was happening in Boston and what had happened there were too compelling not to read. I could sense from the reporters their horrible amazement had what they were reporting and that they sided with the victims. One could read the stories from the perspective of the victims.

As I mentioned the internet was new to me at the time and the reporter's email addresses were at the end of each story. I would email one of the reporters correcting this, that or the other. He would kindly respond. Ultimately I thanked him as far back as 2003 that what he the other reporters had uncovered and reported was an act of God for the Catholic Church, a judgement day for bishops and perpetrators, a wake-up call for the laity and a time of purification and reformation for the clergy. It has led to the healing of many victims and an awareness of this horrible reality of life for many adults which will help prevent some of this now and in the future.

I don't plan to go see the movie and I don't find the subject entertaining in the least. But I am glad for the Boston Globe's coverage as painful as it was to read. But that pain didn't and doesn't compared to what adolescents went through at the hands of those who represent God and the Church. It was the murder of souls.

This is John Allen's article in CRUX which is owned by the Boston Globe. The fact that the Boston Globe has a very Catholic blog that for the most part is quite balanced is another amazing thing to me given their role in exposing the gates of hell in the Church.

Vatican Radio praises movie on Boston Globe coverage of clergy abuse


A new film about The Boston Globe’s coverage of child sexual abuse scandals in the Church 13 years ago has drawn strong praise from the Vatican’s official radio outlet, which described the movie as “honest” and “compelling.”

A Vatican Radio commentator also said the Globe’s reporting, upon which the film is based, helped the Church in the United States “to accept fully the sin, to admit it publicly, and to pay all the consequences.”

Artistic commentary from either Vatican Radio or the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, is not tantamount to an endorsement of a work by either the pope or the Vatican, spokesmen have insisted over the years. Its appearance in a Vatican media outlet, however, creates at least the impression of approval.

Directed by Thomas McCarthy, the movie takes its title, “Spotlight,” from the name of the investigative unit at the Globe that documented a widespread pattern of abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston, which eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law in December 2003.

The paper won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003 for its reporting.

The Vatican Radio commentary says the new film shows Globe journalists exercising “their most pure vocation” as journalists.
The movie was shown in September at a film festival in the Italian city of Venice, triggering the positive review. Vatican Radio, the official radio service of the Vatican, was started under Pope Pius XI in 1931.

Luca Pellegrini, who frequently comments on art and culture for Vatican Radio, praised “Spotlight” for demonstrating “the inexhaustible and uncontainable force of the truth.” His review was posted in Italian on the Vatican Radio website.

“It was a group of professional journalists of the daily ‘Boston Globe’ that made themselves examples of their most pure vocation,” Pellegrini wrote, “that of finding the facts, verifying sources, and making themselves — for the good of the community and of a city — paladins of the need for justice.”

Pellegrini wrote that through its coverage, the Globe had revealed “the horror which, in part, was already known but for too long kept silent by many, of diffuse pedophilia among Catholic priests of the American diocese, with hundreds of victims on the conscience not only of those who committed the crimes but also those who covered it up.”

Pellegrini wrote that the Catholic Church should not be wary of a film about its past failures.
After “decisions made by popes, Vatican departments, and episcopal conferences” to put the Church on a path of reform, he wrote, “designed for the extirpation of evil always and everywhere,” today there is nothing to fear.

Pellegrini praised the sober feel of the movie, saying “the director never gives in to personal interpretation or falls into the trap of scandal,” and also hailed the “extraordinary performances” delivered by actors Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton.

“Spotlight,” which is generating buzz as a possible Oscar contender, is scheduled for release on Nov. 6.

Pope Francis repeatedly has pledged himself to fighting child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, including the creation of a new papal commission in 2014 intended to advise him on reform measures and a special tribunal to prosecute bishops who looked the other way. That body is led by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, who took over the Boston archdiocese from Law in 2003.

1 comment:

Gene said...

Top Ten Songs about the synod on Vatican Radio:

Your Cheatin' Heart
You Went Out of Your Way to Walk on Me
Tell Me A Lie
Ain't That A Shame
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Make Believe
I've Been Cheated
One Day You'll Say You're Sorry
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Walk Like A Man (or Whatever)