First Jimmy Fallon fondly remembered the Latin Mass. Then Bill Murray did. Now Michael Keaton, the actor best known for Batman and Beetlejuice, is speaking about the positive aspects of his Catholic upbringing.
The reason he is doing so is a sad one: His new movie, now in postproduction, is about the journalists who broke the clergy abuse scandal in Boston. The movie, called Spotlight, looks to be a kind of All the Presidents’ Men movie about the journalism sensation of 2002, starring Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci and Liev Schreiber.
We are sure to hear a lot more about the movie as it nears its 2015 release. For now, though, it has at least yielded a defense of 1950s and ’60s Catholic education, a much maligned system that nonetheless did enormous good in America, delivering high-quality education to a vast and diverse group of students.
Keaton was born in 1951 and grew up in McKees Rocks, Pa.
“I liked going to Catholic school,” the Christian Post quotes him saying. “Not as [expletive] as some people think. My experience was fine. It was classic knuckle-rapping and stand in the corner and corporal punishment. But it was just sort of what it was. I didn’t come away scarred for life.”
He spoke about the privilege of serving at Mass. “It kind of builds who you are. I was an altar boy,” Keaton said. “I liked being an altar boy. Me and my buddies got to go and serve Mass and go to school. I didn’t go to church all the time just ’cause I was an antsy kid. It was a good experience for me. It probably does shape who you are and what you believe in.”