Thomas Griffin 5/31/23
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A new documentary featuring Pope Francis was released by the Disney-owned Hulu streaming platform recently. The Pope: Answers highlights the questions from 10 young people from around the world. Whether they are from Senegal, Boston or Spain all of these young individuals speak Spanish with the Roman Pontiff and it is truly an organic conversation showing that the pope is not easily definable.
The nearly hour and a half documentary clip begins showing various members of the conversation preparing for their travel to Rome for the interview, hinting at many of their backgrounds and beliefs. The group first meets each other (without the pope present) and speaks about what it will be like to meet the leader of the Catholic world. Some were nervous for the conversation, but all were optimistic about the personal fruits that could come from the interview.
“I feel ready for it because I know the pope is more liberal,” one of them remarks. They appear open to what the pope will have to say, but honest about the fact that they think the Church needs to change. Pope Francis has indeed become known for his off the cuff remarks and their consistent ambiguities. While there are a few lines that fall in that camp from his Hulu interview, the pope appears very serious during the tough (accusatory) questions and he upholds the Church’s teachings in the face of adversity. Let’s take a look at some of his responses to the topics concerned with human sexuality.
“Why does the Church stand between women and the right to choose?” one girl asked the pope. “Jesus would walk with that person” she exclaimed. She calls herself a Catholic but a staunch feminist as well. Francis responds by saying that the real question we must ask about abortion is whether or not it is “valid to eliminate a life to solve a problem? Can we simply pay someone to eliminate a problem?”
“We must call a spade a spade. Staying by her side is one thing. But justifying the act is another,” says the Bishop of Rome. Francis included the scientific fact that at a month following conception the human DNA is organized and all organs are present. He urges that we need to follow the cold science on this topic while always showing mercy to women who have chosen an abortion. In the face of a generation that desires everything to be permitted, the pope stood by the unchanging truth that murdering babies is evil.
“Would it be better if I was not a feminist Christian but just a feminist?” asked the same girl who champions a woman’s right to choose. “Feminist is an adjective. I am interested in nouns,” the pope said. “We have fallen into an adjective culture. We pile up adjectives. We do not baptize adjectives. We baptize nouns, people. I believe in people,” he said.
In a world that champions the individual’s ability to determine reality for themselves, the pope is speaking truth in a cogent and compassionate way here. Along the same lines he answered a similar question about the possibility of women being ordained to the priesthood, Francis replied: “No, because that is the ministry line…I respect that there are other ideas. But it is not the true idea. It is not the faith of the church.” Not exactly the responses this young group was expecting from the “liberal pope.”
Francis explained that men and women have different roles inside of the Church. In fact, he said that the role of women is lifted even higher than men because the Church is the bride of Christ. Women have something to offer the world and the Church that is very unique. To say that men and women can do the same exact things would be a lie. In a time when countless individuals desire to determine reality according to their own conceptions of reality, Francis applauds logic, reason and science.
One young woman from the documentary, Alejandra, is a maker of “sexual things and pornography.” She speaks very openly about what she does and why. Francis responded by noting that, “obviously pornography diminishes. It does not help you grow…People who are addicted to pornography, it leaves them in a state that does not allow them to grow.”
Then the pope slightly interrupts the conversation with a desire to speak clearly on the Church’s sexual morality: “Sex,” says the Holy Father, “is one of the most beautiful things God gave human beings. To express oneself sexually is something rich. Anything that diminishes a true sexual expression, diminishes you as well, it renders you partial and it diminishes that richness. Sex has a dynamic of its own. It exists for a reason. It’s an expression of love.”
When sex is only about pleasure or only about using someone else for gratification (as an object) then its meaning is stripped and it is diminished of the beauty that it was made for. Once again, the pope speaks clearly, compassionately, but sternly to this hodgepodge group of young people who clearly disagree with the Church on several topics. They might have hoped that he would simply approve of any lifestyle, but the opposite became the case. He remained human and merciful while also being clear about what the Catholic faith (the truth) is.
While many Catholics can go crazy with the pope’s remarks, this Hulu conversation gives access to his orthodoxy and to the fact that he remains steadfast to the truth, even if he is named a liberal anyway (because of some of his ambiguous remarks). That title has given him access to the culture in unprecedented ways and maybe, just maybe the culture will start listening.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.
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