Pope Francis is preceded by his reputation as a progressive. His words in favor of a minimum income, for example, bothered VOX, the party from which Abascal referred to him as “citizen Bergoglio”, in a not too subtle way of slipping that does not abide by his postulates. He has also spoken out in favor of the fight against climate change, has criticized anti-immigration policies and has eliminated the pontifical secret in cases of sexual abuse within the church.
To what extent that progressive image is real is the big question that arises when watching Amen. Francis responds, a televised meeting between the Pontiff and a group of young people (believers, non-believers and one of them a Muslim), led by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez.
The Barcelona communicator met him a few years ago through his interview in Salvados in 2019, and they have kept in touch. After the pandemic, he proposed this format, already available at Disney. It is the first national non-fiction production on the platform, although this year it will be possible to see at least one more.
“Will there be a selfie moment with the Pope?” the protagonists wonder, nervous, before meeting him. When he arrives, they ask him if they can greet him with two kisses. “Two kisses are 50 pesos,” he jokes. A young Spanish rapper opens fire: “Do you have a payroll?”, to which Francisco replies no, but he has free food and lodging, and if he needs money for something else “I ask for it and they give it to me.”
He also does not have a mobile phone and his tweets, he confesses, “are written by his secretaries.” After the first trivialities, the reason for this interview is revealed: “My intention is to communicate” and, when asked why there are people who feel the church is something anachronistic, he assures that “when there is no witness, the church rusts “.
Is it lawful to eliminate a human life to solve a problem?
Among the attendees, there are young people who have little to contribute and others a lot to say. The one who generates the most debate and reflection is, perhaps, the Argentinian Milagros. A believer, catechist and feminist, she is part of Catholics for the right to decide and raises two of the most stimulating questions. One is the role of women in the church hierarchy and the other is abortion: “Jesus would accompany that woman, he would not judge her,” she reasons. And although Pope Francis is in favor of mercy, he finds in the voluntary interruption of pregnancy his first red line of the encounter. For him, it is a scientific problem and, he argues, from the first month the DNA is already defined and the organs drawn. “Is it lawful to eliminate a human life to solve a problem?” He replies, comparing abortion to a hitman. Accompany yes, not justify the act, he sums it up.
The religious finds his greatest ally in Madrid-born María, a follower of the neocatechumental path (popularly known as “kikos”), who assures that she will pray “at the door of the abortion” and try to get women to change their minds. Her arguments are at times, as they say, more papist than the Pope. When he is silent or tries to avoid a question, it is she who responds forcefully, as in the subject of pornography; if Francisco tries not to get too wet by saying that “the morality of the media depends on what you use it for”, Maria proclaims that porn destroys the person who makes it or consumes it. She is also against masturbation, while the holy father sees sexuality as a pending issue in the church: “The catechism on sex is in its infancy.”
The cases of sexual abuse are a drama and in the church it is more scandalous
Another of those present opens a wound. That vision of protecting life seems hypocritical to him when talking about the unborn, but nothing is done about cases of pedophilia in the church. It is Juan Cuatrecasas, who was abused by José María Martínez Sanz, his teacher and Opus Dei numerary, at the Gaztelueta school in Leioa, Bizkaia. Justice agreed with him, although the school protected the attacker at all times. In the face of his words and tears, the Pontiff offers understanding and compassion: “It is a drama and in the church it is more scandalous,” he says, acknowledging the temptation of the past to cover it up and renewing his promise to move forward in this direction. Zero tolerance, he defends.
There are five and a half hours of conversation, summarized in an hour and twenty, where many topics are touched on, although none of them goes too deeply. And yet, it leaves many headlines. “The migrant must be accompanied,” says the Bishop of Rome, stressing that immigrants cannot be considered the slaves of modern society or that it is hypocritical to treat Ukrainian, white, and African immigrants differently.
Tinder, Onlyfans or colonialism are other issues that are put in front of him and will help assess whether that image of a progressive Pope was deserved or not. The viewer has the last word: praying to God and giving command.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project