Pope Francis: Superstar?

The movie "Spotlight" turns five years old this season.

It's a stranger-comes-to-town narrative. Marty Baron arrives at the "Boston Globe," and he encourages his team to look at that all-powerful institution, the Catholic Church.

What follows is horror story after horror story. The reporters first think they're inspecting a small handful of "bad priests," but soon learn it's likely they're inspecting ninety Boston molesters, or more. A survivor explains that, after you've been assaulted by a priest, you "turn to drugs or drinking, or you jump off a bridge." Another survivor spills coffee on himself, because he's so nervous to speak up; his struggle with priests, along with his knowledge of his homosexuality, has been a mighty cross to carry. (This is an indelible two-scene role.)

Unforgettably, the venal ring-leader Cardinal Law hands Marty Baron a Bible, as a gift; "I feel the city works best when its major institutions work together." (Law is "Len Cariou," Sondheim's original Sweeney Todd, and this seems like savvy casting.)

The story comes out. At breakfast, one reporter sits in silence with her heartbroken Catholic (hopefully ex-Catholic) grandmother; it's like morning in Hiroshima. Another struggles to understand that he had some knowledge of priestly cover-ups, and that he didn't act on the knowledge. A third reporter stares in terror at his own small children: When are they allowed out of the house, unsupervised? Who are the neighbors? Can we ever really know who the neighbors are?

Cardinal Law wasn't really punished; in a way, he was rewarded for his evil. He moved to Rome and died in 2017; Mass was celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis said the final prayers.

The mind reels.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwdCIpbTN5g

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