VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett and Judd Apatow were among the Hollywood personalities who met with Pope Leo XIV for a private audience at the Vatican on Saturday (Nov. 15), where the U.S.-born pontiff uplifted the art form of filmmaking and the movies’ ability to bring people together.
Speaking to the invited crowd of actors, directors and producers from all over the world, the pope praised cinema as “intended for and accessible to all.” Movies ignite “the eyes of the soul” and movie theaters are “a threshold” where “the heart opens up and the mind becomes receptive to things not yet imagined,” he said.
“I find comfort in the thought that cinema is not just moving pictures — it sets hope in motion!” Leo said. Cinemas, he added, are a place for those “who carry within their hearts a sense of restlessness and are looking for meaning, justice and beauty.”
The pope called all cultural centers, including cinemas and theaters, “the beating hearts of our communities.” He urged people to “inhabit these spaces” that contribute to enlivening a city.
The pontiff spoke as proposed legislation was pending that would allow developers to turn as many as 50 movie theaters in Rome into shopping malls, supermarke …