In Viaggio<\/em> is made entirely of archival footage from Francis\u2019 37 trips. He visits everyone from politicians to prisoners. He sits in stony silence in government palaces and celebrates Mass in slums. Many of his visits show the Pope standing in his special, largely open Popemobile, the camera capturing the back of Francis as he waves and smiles. In a Brazilian backwater, the scene is almost complete chaos\u2014the vehicle pressed close by people maybe 20 or 30 rows deep. Then, in a swing through Kenya, Francis waves to almost no one but the armed soldiers standing guard.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a movie filled with contrasts, showing the Catholic Church and perhaps even faith itself at a crossroads. And it shows us an intimate picture of a Pope feeling the contrast, and perhaps even confliction, as well. As the (as Catholics believe) God-ordained leader of Catholicism, he\u2019s a guardian of orthodoxy and trustee of 2,000 years of history. But you can see, in almost every trip, his desire to build bridges across the chasms of Christianity and even into other religions as well.<\/p>\n
We see him respectfully visit a mosque in Africa in 2015. \u201cChristians and Muslims are brothers,\u201d he says. \u201cTogether we must say no to hatred, no to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God Himself,\u201d he says\u2014pushing against centuries-old Crusades not just condoned, but ordered by previous popes.<\/p>\n
He visits Israel in 2014, placing a prayer in the Wailing Wall, the most sacred site in Judaism. He visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of Orthodox Christians around the world. The meeting was significant, given that Catholicism and Orthodoxy have been divided for nearly a thousand years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat should I do with a friend, with a neighbor, with an Orthodox person?\u201d Francis said during the meeting. \u201cBe open. Be a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Viaggio<\/em> shows Pope Francis, in some ways, at his most human. We\u2019re witness to controversies and rare papal missteps. In Peru, when someone asked him about the Bishop Juan Barros\u2014a priest then accused of pedophilia\u2014Francis said that he\u2019d respond to the accusations when someone brought him \u201cproof.\u201d The word sparked protests across the country. \u201cMy expression was not well chosen,\u201d he admitted later, \u201cand I understand.\u201d<\/p>\nBut Francis speaks perhaps most eloquently when he\u2019s not speaking. He\u2019d embrace weeping prisoners with tenderness. He sat next to Turkish leaders (shortly after speaking out against the century-old Armenian genocide in what would become Turkey, which Turkey still insists never happened) in grim silence. Often, the pope would look painfully tired. During his most recent trips, Francis walks with a limp.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis leads the Catholic Church at a time when it is undergoing serious change and tremendous scrutiny. The sex scandals that rocked Catholicism still are causing tremors. Though Francis leads a religious body made up of 1.3 billion believers, Catholicism in many areas of the world is shrinking\u2014as is Christianity itself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not Pope Francis\u2019 responsibility to turn that tide\u2014to draw people back into the fold (even though many hoped that, when he was elected pope, he\u2019d do just that). If the faith is real, that church is under a higher authority.<\/p>\n
But you can see, in In Viaggio<\/em>, Pope Francis\u2019 efforts to somehow represent that higher authority\u2014to show both the justice and love of God, albeit in an imperfect, aging, limping form. I\u2019m sure that many inside and outside the Catholic Church can and do quibble with Francis\u2019 priorities and style, taking issue with his public statements and clucking over these trips themselves.<\/p>\nBut there\u2019s something poignant in them\u2014watching a 70- and 80-something-year-old man crisscross the map, speaking for no nation and boasting no army, talk to everyone who\u2019ll listen about charity, kindness and doing what\u2019s right. And even in places where faith slowly slips and the crowd dwindles, still he speaks.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Traveling can be stressful for most of us. The flights, the hotels, the pressures to see and do everything that we\u2019ve come to that place to see and do. But whatever we deal with, it\u2019s nothing compared to what the Pope must navigate. Magnolia Pictures\u2019 In Viaggio\u2014essentially a travelogue of Pope Francis\u2019 decade-worth of trips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":5397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,365,3],"tags":[881,52,86,1032],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-editors-choice","category-movies","tag-catholicism","tag-christianity","tag-documentary","tag-pope"],"yoast_head":"\n
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