The Pope’s 5 responses in ‘Amen: Francis Responds’ on Disney+ that no one will like

Although it does not intend to swell the list of the most controversial documentaries in the history of cinema, this title will cause people to talk, more than enough reason to review The Pope’s 5 responses in ‘Amen: Francis Responds’ on Disney+ that no one will like.

Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez (‘Lo de Évole’), this special promised to show us “an exceptional and exclusive moment with Pope Francis never before recorded by a camera, a close and honest conversation between one of the most influential people in the world and ten young people between the ages of 20 and 25 who speak Spanish“.

“It has been a unique opportunity to bring together two worlds that normally do not touch, to make one of the most influential people in the world have a dialogue with a group of young people whose lives sometimes clash head-on with the postulates of the Church”, explain Évole and Sanchez. “And it has been an act of great generosity, both on the part of Pope Francis and on the part of the ten young people.”

“That Pope Francis sits down to dialogue with young people who are on the periphery of the Catholic Church with this honesty and closeness gives enormous value to this original special,” says Sofía Fábregas, vice president of production for Disney + in Spain. “It was a unique meeting and we are very proud to be able to discover it to the world“.

Salary: “everyone steals in here”

“They don’t pay me anything“, explains the Pope when asked about his salary. “When I need money to buy shoes or something like that, I ask for it. I have no salary.”

“I don’t care because I also know that they give me free food“, he adds. “When I have to make a slightly more expensive expense, I try not to burden the Holy See and ask someone to help me. I’m a mid-level employee, maybe a little bit below.”

It is then that he explains that when he comes across social projects that need money, he does not hesitate to advise them to ask the church. “Ask, everyone steals in here, so I know where you can steal and I’ll send you the money“.

Immigration: “they have to be received, accompanied, promoted and integrated”

“The problem of migration must be taken seriously,” says Francisco. “The migrant must be received, accompanied, promoted and integrated“.

“There are countries in Europe, I don’t want to mention them so as not to have a diplomatic problem, that have small cities or towns that are almost empty. Towns where there are 20 elderly people, no more, and uncultivated fields. And these countries, which are suffering a demographic winter , countries that have an average age of 46 years, do not receive the migrant either.

“Doesn’t that seem selfish to you?” Asks one of the young people before hearing the Pope’s answer: “It is exploitation, it is what it is. Behind that there is an awareness of exploitation. I use you, I do not receive you as a brother, I use you“.

“It’s the ghost of slavery,” he says. “Colonialism is behind an immature migratory policy.”

Racism: “sometimes I find spiritual worldliness in the Vatican”

“We belong to a society, a country and a culture that has a past, and accepting the past sometimes costs“, he answers when asked about racism within the Church. “Coherence is what costs us the most as Christians. Even in the Vatican, sometimes I find spiritual worldliness in the Vatican“.

“The reform of the Church has to start from within,” he confessed. “The Church always has to be reformed because, as cultures advance, the demands change.“.

“The Church did not say anything about slavery because cultures were like that at that time. Today no one talks about slavery like at that time,” he recalls. “But today there is as much slavery as back then, in another way. That a woman standing in line to look for a job and being told that it is 11 hours of work and 600 euros a month, is modern slavery.”

Abortion: “Is it lawful to hire a hit man to kill a human life?”

“I always tell the priests that when a person in this situation approaches, with a guilty conscience because the mark left by an abortion on the woman is hard, please don’t ask too many questions and be merciful,” he explains about a especially painful topic in his native Argentina. “No matter how sinful he is, no matter how much the whole world leaves him, the Lord never leaves him“.

“The problem of abortion must be seen scientifically and with a certain coldness“, he continues. “Any embryology book teaches us that, a month after conception, the DNA is already outlined and you are drawn, in quotes, all the organs. It’s not a bunch of cells that got together but it’s a systemic human life. So, the question to ask when talking about morality is whether it is lawful to take a human life to solve a problem. Or, if I go to a doctor, Is it lawful to hire a hit man to kill a human life to solve a problem?“

It is then that some of those present remind him that abortion exists, that we are facing a public health problem that only worsens with the obstacles and the prohibition and, after a debate among those present, the Pope changes his strategy.

“I appreciate the sensitivity. They realize that it is not a mathematical problem, it is a human problem,” he replies. “A woman who aborts must be accompanied, one must not send her to hell at once, but it is convenient to call things by her name. It is one thing to accompany the person who did this and another thing to justify the act“.

Abuses: “zero tolerance, that is the policy of the Church”

“These cases of child abuse do not prescribe, in the Church at least“, he assures categorically when one of the youngsters tells him how, after suffering abuse in his childhood, he has seen how the criminal continued to teach minors. “If for years they prescribe, I automatically lift the prescription. I don’t want this to ever prescribe“.

“The drama of child abuse is more scandalous in the Church because, precisely where you have to take care of people, you destroy them,” he stresses. “It could be that there are people who are playing badly. The policy is to clean up. If we know that he is playing badly, let the complaint come and we clean up, but zero tolerance, that is the policy of the Church“.

“The temptation of the Church was always to cover it up, until it dawned on her“, he acknowledges. “I found everything, from the denialist who denies even the evidence and is closed and no bullets enter him, to the repentant, who is carrying his grief for what he did.”

“The culture of abuse is everywhere, unfortunately,” he stresses. “The Church is trying to prevent its priests and nuns from abusing. Today I think that what each diocese, the Vatican, etc. is doing is an example of the fight against abuse. There are priests in prison everywhere.”