PREMIERE: FRANCIS, THE POPE OF SURPRISES - A YEAR WITHOUT POPE FRANCIS - A ROME REPORTS DOCUMENTARY

Added: 2026-05-05

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[00:49:23]Hello. My name is Dr. Ramon Tallaj, founder and chairman of Somos Community Care. A year ago, the world said farewell to Pope Francis. But for many of us, it did not feel like had of a distant figure.

[00:49:37]It felt close.

[00:49:38]It felt personal.

[00:49:40]We lost a leader.

[00:49:42]We lost our voice.

[00:49:43]We lost a friend. We lost a teacher.

[00:49:47]We lost a man who made small moments meaningful.

[00:49:51]In medicine, we often talk about healing as clinical.

[00:49:55]But you understood this deeper.

[00:49:59]He understood that healing begins with compassion.

[00:50:02]Walking alongside someone in their suffering, not ahead, not above, but together.

[00:50:09]I had the privilege of working with Pope Francis on many occasions.

[00:50:13]And what stayed with me the most wasn't what he said. It was how he made people feel.

[00:50:19]I remember one time where he welcomed our network of doctors to speak about the challenges facing our communities.

[00:50:28]He did not stand apart.

[00:50:31]He moved among us.

[00:50:32]He moved through the room slowly, intentionally, meeting people one by one. He listened.

[00:50:39]He smiled. He asked questions.

[00:50:42]And in those conversations, things changed. People felt seen. They felt valued. They felt understood. It could have been formal, but it wasn't.

[00:50:53]His gentle humor had a way of lifting the room. He reminded us that even in serious conversation, there's always a space for light.

[00:51:03]That is what made his presence so powerful.

[00:51:06]His message was so simple.

[00:51:09]Take care of the poor.

[00:51:10]Feed the hungry. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

[00:51:15]He reminded us again and again that who we are is not measured by power, but revealed by mercy, by love, and by the way we care for one another.

[00:51:27]This was Francis, the pope full of surprises.

[00:51:32]My friend.

[00:52:05][music] A papal funeral is an event that galvanizes the world's attention with its solemn ceremonial [music] protocol.

[00:52:27]But it seems that [music] Pope Francis had still another surprise in store.

[00:52:31]Two world leaders who weren't talking to each other at the time sat [music] down for an impromptu face-to-face conversation inside St. Peter's Basilica.

[00:52:43]Pope Francis [music] may have died, but his commitment to encouraging peace and dialogue live on.

[00:52:51]His last surprise [music] was having his coffin carried on an open Popemobile through the streets of Rome, past landmarks like the Colosseum, on its way to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he chose [music] to be buried.

[00:53:13]He is a man who looks beyond this life.

[00:53:28][cheering] For many people awaiting the papal election on March 13th, 2013, the choice of Jorge Mario Bergoglio was already a big surprise.

[00:53:42]Their surprise grew [music] when the new pope appeared for the first time on the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square.

[00:53:54]Not only was he not wearing the customary scarlet cape and stole of office, but his first words of greeting were in colloquial Italian.

[00:54:19]Italian has remained his language of choice, whether speaking at formal gatherings and solemn events, or chatting off the cuff [music] to people he meets in the street, or elsewhere.

[00:54:39]Pope Francis made it clear from day one that he would not be bound by protocol or formality.

[00:54:53]When asked why he prefers to live in the modest residence of the Casa Santa Marta, [music] rather than the marbled halls of the Apostolic Palace, he candidly replied, "It's because he needs to be around other people.

[00:55:06]Most often, they come to him.

[00:55:09]But whenever [music] he can, he goes to them."

[00:55:22]I crossed the garden, and when I reached the front door, there were two men who asked me where I was going.

[00:55:28]I told them I was going home, if you please.

[00:55:32]"Do you live here?" they asked. I said I did.

[00:55:36]"Then go upstairs. There's a surprise waiting for you."

[00:55:41]"Oh my goodness, what could it be?" I thought.

[00:55:45]So I hurried upstairs and saw Mrs. Rossi next door with her door open.

[00:55:50]Then I saw a white cassock in the dining room.

[00:55:55]He turned around when he heard me. And when he did, I saw his face and realized it was him. I couldn't believe it, and I said, "Papa Mio, is it you?"

[00:56:07]And he said, "Yes, don't worry. It's really me."

[00:56:13]Ostia is a beach town on the outskirts of Rome. In [music] 2017, the pope visited a public housing project there.

[00:56:21]He went door-to-door, greeting and blessing families, [music] much to their surprise.

[00:56:27]I didn't know anything about it. No one in the parish knew anything.

[00:56:31][music] It was one big surprise.

[00:56:34]I have always been a church-going woman, but this really shocked me. I never thought he visited people's homes. I heard him say he did, but I never believed it. When I saw him here, I believed [music] all right. Because he really came. I was so excited that day.

[00:56:52]I didn't know what to do. I called my sister and said, "The pope came to my house." She asked me if I was out of my mind, if I'd gone crazy. "Yes," I [music] said, "the pope came to my house. I'm not crazy." It was a surreal moment for them. To think that a pope [music] can be so simple, going out to meet other people like brothers and sisters, so informally. [music] It was something incredible.

[00:57:18]The whole neighborhood experienced the excitement [music] of the church going out to meet people.

[00:57:24]Not people looking for the church, but the church going out to meet people.

[00:57:29]The church as mother, [music] as Pope Francis says.

[00:57:37]The pope said he wanted his visit to be a sign [music] of his closeness to families living in often difficult conditions on the peripheries of Rome.

[00:57:44]Some continued to feel the effect of the pope's gesture, even after he returned to the Vatican.

[00:57:51]Two couples, children [music] of the families the pope visited, have come back to the parish.

[00:57:58]But it has always been the elderly to whom Pope Francis [music] shows special affection.

[00:58:03]He constantly reminds grandparents they are valued and needed.

[00:58:07]He frequently tells [music] young people to go out and look for elderly persons who are alone.

[00:58:12]Abandoning them, he has said more than once, is a sin.

[00:58:21][music] [music] [music] Not everyone gets excited at the idea [music] of a pope coming to visit. Some have even wanted to slam the door in his face, which is what happened when Pope John Paul II [music] visited Sweden in 1989.

[00:59:12]At the time, Ulf Ekman was an influential Swedish [music] Lutheran pastor.

[00:59:17]He viewed the papal visit with a lot of suspicion. As a Protestant, [music] I was very prejudiced. I did not have the knowledge, and I was very suspicious, which is a general [music] um, attribute, I say, to Protestantism. Suspicious of authority [music] and specially suspicious about the Pope and his authority. What, uh, I learned, of course, over the years was that not having an authority causes immense trouble.

[00:59:50]It was the first ever trip by a Pope to Scandinavia, a region dominated by the Protestant Lutheran Church, and where Catholics represented less than 1% [music] of the population.

[01:00:01]According to Ekman, in the 1980s, the church was generally seen as a foreign entity with all the precautions and suspicions [music] that followed the Reformation. And in this atmosphere, there was a nervousness that I shared that when the Pope [music] came, confusion would come and the gospel would be diluted. So, we rallied people to pray.

[01:00:26]I would, you [music] know, yes, it was against the Pope. Uh, but it was not as a person. It was whatever [music] he would come with and bring that it would not, you know, dilute [music] the pure gospel, so to speak. That was our, that was our stand, that was our understanding and that was, [music] of course, a great mistake.

[01:00:48]Something began to change, at least for Ulf Ekman, when he and his wife visited Rome some months later and attended a papal audience in St. Peter's Square.

[01:00:58]And the Pope came very close to us, actually. I just with his [music] Popemobile by. My wife cried out, you know, and said, "God bless you, brother."

[01:01:10]And I was a bit shocked, you know, [music] and and and my thought came, "How do you know he's a real brother?"

[01:01:15]And that instance I had that thought, I felt in my conscience, [music] "Here's something wrong with me.

[01:01:24]Of course, he's a brother."

[01:01:25]Ekman was curious about where that sense of kinship could lead. Soon he found his ministry was becoming more charismatic than Lutheran. We started a Bible school [music] because there was such a need for young people to to learn the scriptures. And that turned into [music] a local, uh, congregation, which was not Lutheran, it was more of a charismatic evangelical. And that grew into a movement that became [music] missionaries. So, I was involved in missions many years, especially [music] in the former Soviet Union, uh, Eastern Europe. By the time Francis was elected Pope in 2013, much had changed both in Sweden and in relations between the Catholic and Lutheran churches.

[01:02:10]When, uh, Pope Francis came on the scene, there was something very attractive about him.

[01:02:16]There were certain things that I immediately could connect with. He he was definitely evangelizing. He spoke very freely about Jesus Christ. He he was very open, uh, to Protestant brothers [music] and sisters.

[01:02:31]And you could sense he was walking an extra mile.

[01:02:36]In 2016, Sweden hosted a series of events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and invited the Pope to attend. Much to the surprise of many, he accepted.

[01:02:54]On October [music] 31st, 500 years to the day since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Pope Francis addressed an ecumenical gathering in Lund Cathedral.

[01:03:09][music] [music] [music] It was very effective and it was a surprise and [music] a big blessing.

[01:04:05]That day, it was like the the antagonism [music] and the divisions didn't exist.

[01:04:12]And then he spoke very freely about five imperatives that we should, agree on. That we should listen to one another. We should, uh, learn from one another.

[01:04:28]We should, [music] walk with one another with one another.

[01:04:32]We should [music] work with one another.

[01:04:36]And I think he actually added also that we should, when time comes, also suffer with one another.

[01:04:43]That ecumenical celebration was the first of its kind.

[01:04:47]Its religious and historic importance further confirmed Ekman's decision to join the Catholic Church, a decision he shared with Pope Francis at an audience in the Vatican.

[01:04:58]We spoke for [music] several minutes with him. Uh, and he was very for for my wife and myself, it it made a deep impression.

[01:05:07]He took us seriously.

[01:05:10]He listened very intently. He, he, [music] uh, gave us some advice. And one of the things he said was, uh, "Take care of the sheep."

[01:05:24]So, I could sense his love for the Protestant congregation that we were leaving, which was beautiful.

[01:05:32]It was devotion to the Holy Spirit and their ecumenical experiences with Catholic charismatic groups that cemented Ekman and his wife's attachment to the faith.

[01:05:51]But not everyone shared their enthusiasm for movements like the charismatic renewal. Even Pope Francis had his reservations.

[01:06:35]Many inside and outside the charismatic [music] renewal were surprised the Pope would publicly correct himself and admit that his first impressions [music] had been wrong.

[01:06:58]It's always a surprise when a Pope leaves the Vatican unannounced, but a Pope leaving the Vatican to visit a music shop in downtown Rome is, well, unheard of. It's almost as though Francis [music] enjoys the element of surprise that these informal outings provoke.

[01:07:13]He definitely enjoys the opportunity [music] to meet and engage with people wherever they are and whoever they are.

[01:07:23][music and singing] [singing] I have the feeling Pope Francis has truly understood the futility of the things of this world, the futility of worldliness.

[01:07:42]He is a man who looks beyond this life.

[01:07:46]He does so with absolute consistency and with a love for his neighbor that is truly amazing.

[01:07:54][singing] [music] [music] Like music lovers the world over, it's possible Pope Francis, too, is a fan of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

[01:08:13]It's certain, though, [music] that Andrea Bocelli is a fan of Pope Francis.

[01:08:18]One of the occasions they met in person was in the town of Frosinone when the Pope was there visiting the residential care community known as Cittadella Cielo.

[01:08:27]The project [music] is part of a broader initiative called New Horizons, providing an environment that welcomes and supports those who are rejected, desperate, and [music] alone.

[01:09:02][applause and music] At one point, [music] I felt as though my soul had died. I felt that life was meaningless, like I wanted to throw my life away.

[01:09:18]And because life has no meaning, you feel breathless. You can't find [music] any purpose in life.

[01:09:23]Instead, what I I at Nuovi Orizzonti was [music] that by trying to live the gospel every day, which is what we do together as a community and as a family, I came back to life. [music] My heart has gone from being a heart of stone to one of flesh.

[01:09:39]As far as I'm [music] concerned, this was the first great miracle I experienced.

[01:09:43]Today, Valentina heads the [music] community that welcomed the Pope in 2019.

[01:09:48]She still remembers the surprises that accompanied that visit and the strong emotions it left behind.

[01:09:55]A lot of people got very emotional. You could feel the pain and horror they'd experienced in their lives, each one with their addictions.

[01:10:03][music] Some addicted to pornography, others suffering from anorexia or drug addiction.

[01:10:08][music] They expressed it clearly and shared their pain with us, but in their faces and in their words, we also felt [music] the joy of having met Jesus, someone who lifted them up and saved their lives.

[01:10:25][music] Among those listening to the Pope at Cittadella Cielo was Ilaria Tedde.

[01:10:30]Today, [music] she is a successful songwriter and singer, but she's not afraid to talk about her challenging past [music] and to acknowledge her gratitude to the founder of New Horizons, Chiara Amirante.

[01:10:43]When I was younger, I also experienced [music] this death of the soul as Chiara Amirante calls it.

[01:10:51]This lack of meaning, this feeling of annihilation that so many young people today.

[01:10:57]The sense of emptiness was dulled by the substance abuse, by using people and discarding relationships.

[01:11:05]I was utterly hopeless and living in darkness.

[01:11:09]It's like hell on earth because there's no joy or hope.

[01:11:14]And the future is something you simply let [music] go of while you await the inevitability of death.

[01:11:21]In Ilaria's [music] case, it was someone else's death that rescued her from her dark despair and brought her back to life.

[01:11:28]It was the night that John Paul died. He was the Pope I'd always known. That night I fell and I cried. It was like [music] my heart was melting. The next morning, it was April 2005.

[01:11:41]I began to be curious. I started reading the gospel and there I met an extraordinary man with whom I fell in love. So much in love that I've now decided to consecrate my life to him completely. [music] When people meet Pope Francis for the first time, they often experience the same surprise as Ilaria did.

[01:12:02]The meeting didn't go as she'd expected because he wasn't the kind of Pope [music] she was expecting.

[01:12:09]He gave me the impression of being an ordinary priest, like a parish priest who's been entrusted [music] with the parish of the whole world. I also felt the great responsibility he carries and [music] how exhausting it must be to carry this weight on his shoulders.

[01:12:23]But he communicated such joy and it was this joy that brought us together.

[01:12:28]The whole pontificate of [music] Pope Francis speaks of joy and simplicity, of discovering God in everyday things.

[01:12:37]Pope Francis expresses [music] that joy and simplicity in every encounter, whether with heads of state, leaders of other religious faiths, famous entertainers, [music] or international sports stars.

[01:13:03]When he met Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho, the Pope asked him the question no football fan [music] has the courage to answer.

[01:13:14]The sensation you get when you are close to him, when you listen to what he says [music] and the way he says it, is that you are in the presence of someone who is deeply [music] spiritual.

[01:13:33][music] The people of South Sudan have suffered a lot. The conflict has been raging for over 60 years.

[01:13:56]Two and a half million South Sudanese are still living outside the country.

[01:14:00]There are 2 million [music] internal refugees.

[01:14:02]Life is extremely hard.

[01:14:05]When Africa's longest-running civil war ended in 2005, the way opened to South Sudan achieving independence, which it did in 2011.

[01:14:15]But conflict [music] has continued to plague the new nation.

[01:14:19]In 2019, Pope Francis invited the country's main rival [music] groups to the Vatican to encourage them to work together towards peace and reconciliation.

[01:14:28]It was while he was greeting the South Sudanese leaders that [music] Pope Francis did something so unexpected, it left his guests aghast.

[01:14:36]He fell to his knees [music] and proceeded to kiss the feet of each one of them.

[01:14:45][bell] In the video, you see clearly how they try to stop Pope Francis from making this important and very surprising, even prophetic, gesture.

[01:15:03]Everyone [music] was deeply moved.

[01:15:06]I believe, in fact, I know for sure that by this gesture, Pope Francis wanted to encourage them to put aside their divisions.

[01:15:18]The Pope addressed the South Sudanese leaders [music] as a brother.

[01:15:22]He begged them to stay in peace and to resolve their problems.

[01:15:26]But that wasn't all.

[01:15:28]There's a detail not everyone knows about.

[01:15:31]At the end of that meeting, Pope Francis gave the leaders a Bible in which he wrote an inscription.

[01:15:36]Put aside that which divides and seek that which unites. As Secretary General of the [music] Sant'Egidio Community, Paolo Impagliazzo travels often to South Sudan where he's witnessed the fruits [music] of that papal encounter for himself.

[01:15:53]Since the meeting with Pope Francis, there's been a certain stability in the country.

[01:15:59]Unfortunately, the violence isn't over.

[01:16:03]It's a country that has lived for many years in conflict.

[01:16:07]Pope Francis has started a process of reconciliation that needs to be established slowly in order to take root in South Sudan.

[01:16:16][music] [music] Pope Francis is uncompromising when it comes to seeking ways to mediate, even in seemingly impossible situations.

[01:16:47]When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he made the unprecedented gesture of visiting the Russian Embassy to the Holy See to express his concern. Since then, he has continued to pray for peace and to speak out unceasingly for an end to the war.

[01:17:17][applause] [music] In 2021, Pope Francis took the daring decision to visit Iraq.

[01:17:42]He had been advised not to go. The trip was considered [music] too dangerous.

[01:17:47]The pandemic was still a threat and there were major security issues.

[01:17:51]It was the first [music] ever visit by a Pope to Iraq where one of the world's oldest Christian communities has been devastated [music] by years of war, terrorism, and persecution.

[01:18:01]His message was clear. We cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion.

[01:18:07]One immediate and surprising result of the Pope's visit to this Muslim-majority country was the official recognition of Christmas as an annual public holiday.

[01:18:29][music] [music] Any Vatican journalist who has ever had the privilege of traveling with Pope Francis [music] knows that surprises are part of the itinerary.

[01:18:50]As Dean of the Vatican Press Corps, Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki had seen several.

[01:18:57]But even she never expected the Pope would surprise her by celebrating her birthday aboard the papal plane.

[01:19:20]baby I was delighted because it was my 60th birthday and the Pope very kindly put the zero without the six. And when the cake arrived, he joked that I'd started working at the Vatican when I was a child. She started working here when she was a little girl, he said in Italian.

[01:19:45]Apart from the cake, which had never been seen on a papal plane before, what impressed us is that he almost started singing happy birthday and we know that the Pope doesn't sing. He never sings, neither at mass nor on other occasions.

[01:19:59]So, that was also something very striking. But, of course, it was a huge surprise.

[01:20:17][music] Perhaps it's the altitude, but clearly Pope Francis enjoys high-flying surprises.

[01:20:24]Like when he spontaneously chose to celebrate the marriage of two flight [music] attendants at 36,000 ft above the ground over Chile.

[01:20:43]When the Pope boards the plane, the crew always greet him. They take a picture with him and so on. They welcome the Pope aboard. On that occasion, two crew members told him that they were supposed to have been married, but couldn't because there'd been an earthquake, I think. Then the Pope said to them, surprising everybody and most especially the two interested parties, "What's the problem? I'll marry you."

[01:21:10]The couple explained they'd been [music] civilly married for 8 years. They had to postpone the religious ceremony when an earthquake damaged their parish church and they hadn't yet rescheduled the wedding.

[01:21:22]The idea came to him spontaneously. He said this is the sacrament that's missing in the world, the sacrament of matrimony. "Hopefully, this will motivate couples everywhere to return to this sacrament and that's why I'll do it," he said.

[01:21:35]After ensuring they had completed a pre-marriage course and had all the necessary documents, the Pope performed the [music] ceremony and pronounced the couple man and wife.

[01:21:44]He also offered them some words of advice.

[01:21:47]He told us not to wear our wedding rings so tightly that they hurt us.

[01:21:51]But, not to wear them too loosely either or they might fall off.

[01:21:56]"We have to be careful," he said. It's the human empathy with which he relates to people, including us journalists.

[01:22:03]It's something that's always attracted my attention. On his first papal flight to Brazil, it was my job to greet him as dean of the Vatican press corps. I told him he probably felt like he was in the lion's cage because we journalists know that when he was still bishop and cardinal in Argentina, he didn't like the press. So, I said to him, "Look, the truth is I don't see us like that. We are your traveling companions. We're not so bad, but we'd really like you to answer our questions." Pope Francis not only answered her questions, he invited her to address [music] cardinals, bishops and church leaders from all over the world who came to the Vatican in 2019 to attend a 3-day [music] summit on how to address the issue of abuse.

[01:22:46]In facing criminal conduct like the abuse of minors, does an institution like the church have any other way to be faithful to itself other than to report this crime? [music] Does it have any other way if not that of being on the side of the victim and not the perpetrator?

[01:23:07]At a special ceremony in the Vatican in 2021, [music] Pope Francis expressed his appreciation for the contribution of journalists like Valentina Alazraki in exposing the errors of the church.

[01:23:20][clears throat] [music] [music] Francis had been Pope for just 4 months [music] when he surprised everyone by deciding that his first papal trip would be to the small island of Lampedusa off the coast of southern Italy.

[01:23:57]It's there that boats arrive from North Africa carrying refugees and migrants who've risked their lives fleeing war and poverty.

[01:24:05]Not all of them succeed in making it across the often treacherous waters of the Mediterranean.

[01:24:10]In fact, Pope Francis [music] frequently describes that stretch of sea as the cemetery of the nameless.

[01:24:23]The plight of refugees and migrants is an issue that's particularly close to the Pope's heart.

[01:24:28]It's the reason why his travels to Greece, Cyprus and Malta have always included powerful appeals on their behalf.

[01:24:36][music] During his visit to [music] Malta in 2022, he focused special attention on the suffering of people living in refugee camps.

[01:24:56]Onlookers were surprised to see how [music] deeply he shares their pain and anxiety.

[01:25:02]People sometimes are afraid.

[01:25:05]They're afraid [music] because they don't love them.

[01:25:08]They're afraid because they may cause trouble. [music] They may bring disease. They are dirty.

[01:25:16]They take jobs.

[01:25:17]And people lose jobs.

[01:25:20]All these sorts of things.

[01:25:21]You know.

[01:25:22][music] Nothing can take the place of being physically present among those who are suffering, of witnessing their struggles first-hand.

[01:25:31]That's something [music] Pope Francis understands only too well.

[01:25:36]No. No, I never expected to meet the Pope. It was it was a big surprise for for for for me and also for the residents of the Peace Lab cuz yes, you we see the Pope on TV every Sunday.

[01:25:54]We watch the Pope on TV, but we [music] never thought he's going to come here, stay with us, be with us for 2 hours more, have a conversation with us. It was it was it was surprising.

[01:26:07]Nearly a quarter of the migrants who arrived in Malta in 2020 were unaccompanied children.

[01:26:13]Most of the adults hope to reach other countries in Europe where they may already have friends and family. The Pope's message to them all at the Peace Lab in Malta was that he was there to look into their eyes and assure them they are always in his [music] heart and prayers.

[01:26:32][music] Pope Francis [music] is not only a Pope of surprises, he is also a Pope of concrete actions.

[01:26:48]In 2016, [music] on a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, he made the unprecedented gesture of bringing 12 refugees back with him to the Vatican.

[01:26:57]All of them Syrian Muslims. Not all of Pope Francis' [music] surprise gestures are immediately understood though, which is why he felt the need to explain the significance of this one.

[01:28:18][music] [music] [music] In 2015, Pope Francis made a much-anticipated trip to the United States.

[01:28:40]It was the first [music] time he'd ever visited North America and there was a lot of speculation about where he would go and what he would say.

[01:28:47]The first surprise was his choice of motor [music] car.

[01:28:50]The tiny black Fiat 500 was in stark contrast to the massive limousines usually used by other visiting [music] heads of state.

[01:29:04][music] One of his most moving encounters was with the survivors of clerical sexual abuse.

[01:29:09]The meeting took place in private, but Pope Francis spoke about the effect it had on him when he addressed the [music] US bishops.

[01:29:16]continua avermandome la vergüenza The Pope continued his person-to-person approach [music] when he visited Philadelphia's largest prison, the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

[01:29:51]There, he went out of his way to greet the prisoners one by one.

[01:29:55]A gesture that was as unprecedented as it [music] was unexpected. We didn't think he was going to go in and greet each person.

[01:30:03]I mean, that wasn't something we were planning on him like maybe going and greeting, but there was actual hugs.

[01:30:08]Like, somebody got up and hugged him.

[01:30:09]And that was, you know, shocked got us there for a second.

[01:30:13]Visiting people in prison is one of the seven works of mercy, and it's always been a priority for Pope Francis.

[01:30:20]He still corresponds with prisoners [music] in the jail he visited regularly when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

[01:30:27]So, it shouldn't have come as such a surprise when he chose to include a prison visit as part of his US itinerary.

[01:30:34]The whole country was focused on it. So, he's not just celebrating the mass in front of the art museum, which was great, but he's going to the prison, this forgotten space where all these people, men and women, are locked up.

[01:31:15]aren't Catholic.

[01:31:16]They don't necessarily get excited about the Pope. But then him actually coming in there, you know, and they saw him and felt him.

[01:31:27]I think they were really moved at that.

[01:31:29]And including some of the correctional officers [music] and the wardens and all who made room for him to So, it was a great moment.

[01:31:37]And I think we're still feeling [music] the after effects.

[01:31:40]Among those after effects are both a change of heart and a new perspective from [music] many of those who participated in the Pope's visit to the jail, including the prison chaplain.

[01:31:50]It helped me open my eyes. Now, I see I actually see Jesus [music] in some of these inmates who are like they're psychotic and they murdered somebody. And I'm saying, "Oh my god.

[01:32:01]Jesus is in the eyes of this person I'm looking at." So, it the Pope led us into that vision.

[01:32:06][music] The way Pope Francis interacted with the prison inmates in Philadelphia challenged Father Morrissey to question how he himself [music] relates to those he had comforted in his pastoral ministry.

[01:32:17]Pope Francis always acknowledges that those in jail are there because they've made a mistake and must pay for it.

[01:32:23]But their punishment should include what he calls a horizon of hope.

[01:32:27]And that's the message that remains long after the Pope leaves.

[01:32:31]I think it did lift people's spirits.

[01:32:34]I think people, you know, the the the people are in here it's like sometimes the incarcerated people get lost in the system and here's somebody as big as he was came in and and took his time to meet with these people. So, It was unbelievable what joy and hope it brought to the city.

[01:32:53]With all the violence that goes on in the city at times, this visit of the Pope was like some huge uplifting moment for our city, and I think it still is.

[01:33:01]Still is.

[01:33:02]One way of ensuring the Pope's message of healing [music] still resonates among the prison community and beyond has been through the creation of a healing garden, [music] a space of reflection and remembrance.

[01:33:14]It's dedicated all kinds of bricks for people who've been harmed or hurt. Some people in prison, some judges who've worked with us. And uh It cries to God for all this healing in the city and beyond.

[01:33:41][music] [music] Walking together is a constant refrain in everything Pope Francis [music] says and does.

[01:33:57]For him, it means sharing in the joys and sufferings of others, doing whatever [music] it takes to express his closeness to them.

[01:34:05]During a pastoral visit near Rome in 2018, the Pope was moved at the sight of a small boy who was crying.

[01:34:12]The child's father, who always [music] said he didn't believe in God, had just died.

[01:34:17]And the boy was afraid he might not be in heaven.

[01:34:20]The impact of the images lies as much in the Pope's gestures as [music] in his words, which is one reason the video went viral.

[01:34:30][music] [music] [music] [applause] [music] [music] [music] [music] [applause] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Hello. I'm Shawn Patrick Lovett. I'm here in the studios of Rome Reports Media just across the road from the Vatican.

[01:38:28]You've just watched our Rome Reports Emmy nominated documentary entitled Francis, The Pope of Surprises.

[01:38:37]We thought it would be fitting to share it with you right now because, as you know, April the 21st marks the first anniversary of the death of Francis, the Pope who never ceased to surprise and whose memory continues to inspire us.

[01:38:54]Here to share their memories of Pope Francis is the director of the documentary, Rome Reports CEO Antonio Oliviere, and its producer Mario Paredes, chief executive officer of Somos Community Care.

[01:39:10]But before we get into our question and answer session with them, let's hear from someone else who knew and worked closely with Pope Francis. He's the Archbishop Emeritus of Boston in the United States, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley. Thinking of the pontificate and the legacy of Pope Francis, there are three themes that come to mind.

[01:39:36]The joy of the gospel, his first encyclical, and the emphasis that he put on evangelization and the good news and the simplicity of the gospel and the kerygma.

[01:39:49]Uh helping us to refocus on the gospel as the center of our mission.

[01:39:56]Uh the next theme uh that was so important in his ministry was that of mercy.

[01:40:04]Uh in my long life, I've had the experience of many holy years, but none was as impactful as the year of mercy that Pope Francis called for.

[01:40:19]Uh the entire church was involved in that and he really uh underscored the fact that the face of God is mercy.

[01:40:30]And we are people that are hungry for for mercy.

[01:40:36]The third important theme of his pontificate is of course synodality.

[01:40:44]Where the Holy Father calls us to be part of a community of faith that is discerning God's will for the church.

[01:40:56]And this discernment begins by listening, listening to each other, listening to the voices that often uh go unheard.

[01:41:05]And listening also to the Holy Spirit and realizing that uh in the church we're not a democracy where we just vote on things, but we are people striving to see the face of God and discern his holy will in our lives.

[01:41:24]And these themes to me were such treasures that Pope Francis left the church and I'm so grateful uh for his ministry, for his example, for his friendship, his kindness to me personally, but particularly for these wonderful gifts, the joy of the gospel, God's mercy, and the gift and challenge of synodality.

[01:41:48]Thank you, Cardinal O'Malley, for sharing those precious memories. And now, Mario Paredes, I want to hear from you.

[01:41:56]As producer of this documentary and as someone who also knew Pope Francis personally, is it true that long before he became Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was actually your teacher?

[01:42:10]It is true.

[01:42:13]Uh I was sent by my parent to study in Buenos Aires at the Jesuit University called El Salvador.

[01:42:25]And in that university, I had a professor, a newly ordained Jesuit, young, and that was uh Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

[01:42:40]Our relationship was a normal relationship of a professor to and a student and that was uh how we maintained our initial contacts.

[01:42:56]I want to know something more. Was he strict? Did he give you lots of homework? Did he make you stay after class? What was he like? Well, I recall uh he was a very serious person, uh very little smile, uh very respectful, very polite, but distant. He was certainly a person that I guess was just beginning to take a taste of the classroom and uh that is how he related with the students.

[01:43:32]I have a lot more questions for you, Mario, but first I want to jump over to Antonio Olivier, who wrote and directed the documentary.

[01:43:42]Antonio, what made you decide to do this documentary in the first place? Thank you so much, Sean Patrick. So, basically, the the goal of of of this documentary is to show the spiritual approach of Pope Francis. So, I think that many times as a journalist, uh we were used to see the political approach, the the political angle of Pope Francis. Many people said, "Okay, he's more on the left. He's more a friend of these kind of political people." But uh the political aspect of Pope Francis is not the important thing. I think that he's a religious leader. So, the goal of this documentary is to show Pope Francis as a religious leader, as a as a man that is looking for charity, that is looking for mercy, that is trying to highlight the the mercy. He he's trying to meet the people that are living under difficult conditions and I think that is important because in the mainstream media, there is more this political approach and not the political the the excuse me, the spiritual approach, no, that I think that is fundamental. Otherwise, you don't understand who was Pope Francis.

[01:45:08]So, why didn't you call the documentary The Spirituality of Pope Francis? Why call it The Pope of Surprises?

[01:45:17]Basically, it was because uh I think that it was in in order to highlight this idea of charity, he was able to break the rules, he was able to break the script, he was able to break um the tradition sometimes because he he wanted to surprise the people or not to surprise the people with mercy, with charity, with with a personal touch, you know, with a personal approach to the people and I think that this is a Pope that surprised everybody.

[01:45:54]Rome Reports produced news packages on the life and work of Pope Francis every day of his pontificate. So, you watched, you saw close up many of these gestures.

[01:46:08]Your own memory, one gesture that struck you in particular that you know you will never forget.

[01:46:15]So, I will never forget the last week of Pope Francis when he was ready to die a few days before he passed passed away.

[01:46:27]Uh he went to visit a prison four days before dying, you know, and for me it was impressive, you know, because he was always ready to serve the other, serve he was always thinking not in himself, thinking in on charity.

[01:46:48]Did you ever meet him personally? Yes.

[01:46:52]I I I have when I meet him, my feeling it was that he was praying for you. And And that was an experience that I have with many people that or people that were atheist, um people that were not Catholic, but everybody who meet him personally, one-to-one, uh they have the the same feeling. Uh this man is something especial.

[01:47:23]He was praying for me.

[01:47:25]Um everybody was moved were moved, you know, by by this personal approach.

[01:47:31]And then he would always say, "Remember to pray for me." For remember pray Yes, this idea of humility, you know, because he realized, you know, that he was a human being. Uh he was fragile and he needs the support of the others, you know, and I think that it was it was important. Mario Paredes, back to you.

[01:47:56]Pope Francis is often described as being a man of gestures.

[01:48:01]Is there any one gesture of his in particular that you remember and that moved you personally?

[01:48:10]No doubt that uh when he became Pope by the grace of God, uh he suffered an incredible transformation in his capacity to communicate and articulate a public message.

[01:48:29]And in that symbol, gestures that he used were extremely powerful. Uh the language that he used, it was very creative, very innovating, and a language that was uh to a certain extent very much of the secular vocabulary rather than to be the regular church language that we have heard for decades and decades. So, when he speaks about that the church is being viewed by him as a hospital in a battleground.

[01:49:18]No one thinks in those terms, but the way how he explained it, it made a lot of sense, though, that I use certainly go to a place where people are in need of being healed or seeking for health.

[01:49:38]The the expressions that the confessionary it is not a custom service.

[01:49:49]It is a relationship. It's a dialogue, you know, between a sinner and a dialogue with God who is being listened by someone like the priest that is in the place uh understood and presented by the church.

[01:50:11]So, there there is that language that Pope Francis developed in the encounter with the World Youth Meetings.

[01:50:24]It was fascinating to see him in action and how related to the youth.

[01:50:30]And he was already very much an elderly man. During world meetings of youth that he attended, but he connected. He was able to touch [snorts] the hearts and the mind of the youth. Whenever you came to Rome, you would always stay at the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, the residence where Pope Francis lived. I know that because I've had lunch with you there. Now, when you met with Pope Francis in private, was he any different from what people saw in public?

[01:51:06]I could say today very freely Pope Francis was a very witty man.

[01:51:15]He loves jokes. He has smile.

[01:51:20]At times he was kind of sarcastic the way how he will make comments. He was very much down-to-earth, simple in his relationship with his friend. No formalities whatsoever. So, definitely, I have that privilege. I enjoy his kindness toward my person. At the end, I am just a simple layman of the church.

[01:51:52]I am not a professor in theology. I just merely have a doctorate in philosophy. I have not written any literary major work. I just write article from time to time on personal reflections, but that's it. But he was kind to me. He was warm. He was always very open to me. And he from time to time, he would ask me questions about United States, about some of the countries of Latin America.

[01:52:30]He knew my involvement in Cuba, and we would chat about Cuba situation, how many trips I have made to Cuba in recent days, and other country. So, that was the type of a spontaneous relationship.

[01:52:46]And really, I would have breakfast or lunch or dinner with him when he would have some very concrete questions and privacy in order to discuss a specific issues. But otherwise, I was very respectful of his time, and I avoid to be in the presence of the Holy Father as much as possible. But he knew that I was in Santa Marta, and we would say hello.

[01:53:14]Sometimes I would participate in the private mass that he would celebrate at Santa Marta.

[01:53:22]Did he also say the same joke that he liked to say when he accompanied people to the door?

[01:53:28]You know, people would say, "Oh, it's okay, Holy Father. I can find my own way out." And Pope Francis would always reply, "No, no, no. I have to see you to the door to make sure you haven't stolen the silverware."

[01:53:44]You described it very well. He he was that type of person, you know, because he was spontaneous, he was natural, and he was free to speak that way, you know, and make those type of joke.

[01:53:58]Here's a serious question for you, Mario Paredes.

[01:54:02]Unfortunately, our memories are often very short. How would you like future generations to remember him?

[01:54:11]He definitely, Pope Francis was a man of great innovation.

[01:54:20]He wanted to turn the church into the real world and to engage the church in dialogue with society. And that is a reason that his language was so universal.

[01:54:36]When I read at the beginning of his pontificate the story of the Rolling Stone magazine about Pope Francis, it just blew my mind. I said, "This Pope is getting the message across.

[01:54:57]He is speaking to the world that had not paid attention to the leadership of the church before."

[01:55:06]And no doubt, Paul the VI was a saintly Pope and brilliant, and John Paul the II, and Benedict XVI, they were remarkable Popes in modern time.

[01:55:19]But Pope Francis and his humanity, his simplicity, and his desire to live with total openness is what impacted the world.

[01:55:40]To have a funeral with 90 heads of a state from all over the world that they went to pay respect to the Pope, that's a something. Many of those leaders were not believers, but yet they recognize that in that person, in that man called the Pope, he was someone who touched with his message the life of millions of people around the world. Thank you, Mario Paredes, chief executive officer of Somos Community Care in New York, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley in Boston, and Antonio Olivi here in Rome.

[01:56:28]A special thanks also to the Dr. Ramon Tallaj Foundation for its support. And thanks to you for joining us. Please feel free to share your own memories of Pope Francis in the comments, and do let us know what you think about documentary, The Pope of Surprises. We really hope you like it.

[01:56:50]From all of us here at Rome Reports, goodbye for now.

[01:56:54]Arrivederci.