UNITED STATES
Main Line Media News
By Bonnie Squires
For Main Line Media News
Looking back over 2015, probably the biggest thing that happened in our part of the world was the whirlwind visit of Pope Francis. Parts of Lower Merion and Wynnefield, and Saint Joseph’s University, will forever carry the honor of having housed or seen Pope Francis at their addresses. His message of compassion and love touched all of us, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Even though most of us watched non-stop on television, we felt a kinship with Pope Francis. I got a chance to wave to him on City Avenue as he was driven from the seminary and Saint Joseph’s campus to the Parkway for the giant Mass. This pope gives off an aura, just as his predecessor did in 1979.
With this in mind, I thought it was very courageous of Juliet Goodfriend and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to schedule showings of the new film “Spotlight” during the Christmas holidays.
Spotlight” is the fact-based dramatic story of how the Boston Globe dug in under a new editor, Marty Baron, and ultimately exposed the pedophile priest scandal and cover-up in the Boston Archdiocese.
Even though we all know what happened, “Spotlight” manages to maintain tension and drama, as we see reporters who are all Catholics, albeit lapsed, wrestle with their feelings and fears about attacking the Catholic Church and all the powerful people in Boston. Friendships are strained as people continue to sweep the dirty business under the rug, refusing to confirm information which has been kept secret with pay-offs by the church to the many child victims.
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