Pope Leo welcomes Hollywood stars including Spike Lee and Cate Blanchett to the Vatican

Pope Leo welcomed Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett, Greta Gerwig and dozens of other Hollywood luminaries to a special Vatican audience celebrating cinema and its ability to inspire and unite.

Leo encouraged the filmmakers and celebrities gathered in a frescoed Vatican audience hall to use their art to include marginal voices, calling film “a popular art in the noblest sense, intended for and accessible to all”.

“When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges,” he told the stars.

“It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we didn’t know we needed to shed.”

The encounter, organised by the Vatican’s culture ministry, followed similar audiences Pope Francis had in recent years with famous artists and comedians.

It is part of the Vatican’s efforts to reach out beyond the Catholic Church to engage with the secular world.

But the gathering also seemed to have particular meaning for history’s first American pope, who grew up in the heyday of Hollywood.

The 70-year-old, Chicago-born Leo just this week identified his four favourite films: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Ordinary People, and Life Is Beautiful.

In a sign of how seemingly star-struck he was, Leo spent nearly an hour after the audience greeting and chatting amiably with each of the participants, something he rarely does for large audiences.

Drawing applause from the celebrities, Leo acknowledged that the film industry and cinemas around the world were experiencing a decline, with cinemas that had once been important social and cultural meeting points disappearing from neighbourhoods.

“I urge institutions not to give up, but to co-operate in affirming the social and cultural value” of cinemas, he said.

Many celebrities said they found Leo’s words inspiring, and expressed awe as they walked through the halls of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, where a light luncheon reception awaited them after the audience.

“It was a surprise to me that I even got invited,” Spike Lee told reporters along the red carpet gauntlet in the palace.

During the audience, Lee had presented Leo with a jersey from his beloved Knicks basketball team, featuring the number 14 and Leo’s name on the back.

Leo is a known Chicago Bulls fan, but Lee said he told the pope that the Knicks now boast three players from the pope’s alma mater, Villanova University.

Blanchett, for her part, said the pope’s comments were inspiring because he understood the crucial role cinema can play in transcending borders and exploring sometimes difficult subjects in ways that are not divisive.

“Filmmaking is about entertainment, but it’s about including voices that are often marginalised and not shy away from the pain and complexity that we’re all living through right now,” she said.

She said Leo, in his comments about the experience of watching a film in a dark cinema, clearly understood the culturally important role cinemas can play.

“Sitting in the dark with strangers is a way in which we can reconnect to what unites us rather than what divides us,” she said.