Hollywood stars met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where the pontiff called cinema a “workshop of hope” and lamented declining audiences.
The line-up of film stars and directors meeting the first American pope on Saturday included Oscar-winners Cate Blanchett, known for “Aviator” and “Elizabeth”, and Spike Lee, who directed “Malcolm X” and “BlacKkKlansman”.
All those present in the audience in the Vatican’s apostolic palace met Leo personally at the end, with Lee presenting the first American pope with a New York Knicks jersey.
Monica Bellucci, who played Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”, also met the pope on Saturday, as did actor Adam Scott, of the series “Parks and Recreation” and “Severance”, and Sergio Castellitto, who played the “vaping cardinal” Tedesco in the movie “Conclave” that dramatizes the secretive papal election process.
“The Church esteems you for your work with light and time, with faces and landscapes, with words and silence,” Leo told them.
“I wish to renew this friendship because cinema is a workshop of hope, a place where people can once again find themselves and their purpose.”
The meeting took place, the Vatican said, to “deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema” and explore the “possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church.” It also comes as the church is seeking to reach new audiences with a new Gallup World Poll showing a 17-point drop in the percentage of adults in the US who say religion is an important of their daily life.
In his speech, delivered in Italian, Leo also lamented the “troubling decline” of cinemas, which he said were increasingly being removed from cities.
“I urge institutions not to give up, but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity,” he said in remarks that were greeted by an applause.
The Chicago-born pontiff had shared his favorite movies ahead of the meeting, naming “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “The Sound of Music” (1965), “Ordinary People” (1980), and “Life is Beautiful” (1997).
Rev. Antonio Spadaro, one of the Vatican officials helping to arrange the meeting, reflected that in each of Leo’s chosen films “goodness appears fragile, naïve, almost out of place – and yet precisely for that reason, revolutionary.”
The Vatican meeting with film stars follows a similar gathering hosted by Pope Francis with comedians..
