The Pope: Answers
Release Date: April 5, 2023
Watch Date: April 8, 2023
I was raised agnostic, Bob is Protestant. Neither of us, in that context, have any connection to the Pope, or any reason to value what he says. But, while my parents may not have any traditional spiritual calling, both sets of grandparents are very, very, religious Catholics. Bob's family, too, has a long line of Catholicism running through it. It's actually strange to most people in his family that his tiny portion isn't. So while neither of us look the Pope for guidance in our every day lives, we do at least have some ability to recognize his importance and influence on the greater world. And honestly, there's a level of that knowledge that just comes from living in the world. What the Pope says and thinks matters, and has the ability to guide nations and peoples. So we should probably know what the Pope thinks.
So when this came out, I don't feel I had any choice but to jump on it. I like this Pope, for the wrong reasons according to my very rude grandfather, but I do. I think he's about as liberal a pope as we're likely to get in this day and age, since they're always contemporaries of the planets oldest generation and not it's youngest, and the oldest generation of the planet right now is not the most liberal in the world. I like how giving he is. How he feels like your average parish priest that you could go to for counsel, and not like a pontiff in charge of an entire religious structure. I want to know more intimately what the guy thinks, since what he says and feels will be influencing a huge religion that I have to interact with - possibly without knowing it - almost daily.
I think that they did this film really well. I was kind of hoping for more of an international representation, but I respect that they wanted to enable him to speak in his native tongue so that his responses to questions would be as honest as accurate in conveying what he meant as possible. Do I think there are more people in the globe that can speak fluent Spanish and therefore we could have had a lot more varied questions rather than just from people from countries where Spanish is the native tongue? Yes. But, we didn't, and they did at least try to pick varied representation from within the limits they set for themselves, and I respect that.
My only complaint, really, is that there is a lot of discussion between the interviewers on their thoughts and opinions on the questions the others are asking, and not as much time, I feel, given to the Pope, y'know, our actual interview subject? Not that I'm not up for a good theological debate, but at the same time I came here to listen to the pontiff have one, not a bunch of twenty somethings I could argue with on the internet. Don't get me wrong though! The interviewers are respectful to each other and the Pope, they take turns, and they have well thought out questions or opinions, and honestly I think it's good for the Pope to hear their varied opinions anyways, because I don't know how many twenty-somethings he's hanging out with on the daily to stay in touch with modern opinions on things. But that could have been done off camera, and the Pope could have been given more questions, or asked to expand more on the answers he did give.
This is one of those movies that you only need to watch once, unless you really want to examine the man's answers, and neither Bob nor myself are dedicated enough to the study of theology to want to do that. But if you are at all interested in the opinion of a world leader, and like it or not the man is a world leader, or he's the head of your religion, or you just like a good interview, I would recommend putting this on at least once. But be prepared, it's not dubbed, so you will have to sit and actively watch the entire thing.
Comments
Post a Comment