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Philomena Lee, the woman whose story inspired the Oscar nominated film “Philomena”, this week attended Mass in St Peter’s Square before meeting Pope Francis at his weekly General Audience.
“Philomena” is the movie of Lee’s search for her adopted son.
Lee, now 80, was an unmarried mother in Ireland in the 1950’s, and put into a convent as a ‘fallen woman’ was forced by the nuns to give up her son when he was just 3 years old.
“I am honoured and delighted to have been in the presence of Pope Francis today,” Lee said.
Ms Lee and her daughter Jane recently launched The Philomena Project to help reunite families separated by adoption.
They travelled with actor and Philomena writer Steve Coogan to the Vatican with a group representing the Philomena Project, which is calling for the Irish Government to initiate legislation that will result in the opening of adoption records with the goal of reuniting mothers with the children that they had to give up due to forced adoptions.
“As the film portrays, I have always put great faith in the church and the good will to put the wrongs of the past right,” said Lee.
“I hope and believe that his Holiness Pope Francis joins me in the fight to help the thousands of mothers and children who need closure on their own stories.”
Over the weekend reports emerged that Philomena’s producers had invited Pope Francis to watch a specially co-ordinated screening of the film, however Vatican spokesman, Fr Lombardi said that the Pope will not be watching it and criticised the producers for using Francis as a “marketing strategy”.
“The Holy Father does not see films, and will not be seeing this one. It is also important to avoid using the Pope as part of a marketing strategy,” said Fr Lombardi.
“The film has four Oscar nominations, including best picture, best actress for Dame Judi and best adapted screenplay.”
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