A Review of The Pope Answers by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Hulu
MPAA Rating, PG-13
OSV Rating, Not Rated at the Time of this Review
Reel Rating, One Reel
Let’s start with a word from past me:
I am writing this on the evening of
March 22nd. The documentary The
Pope Answers will premiere on Hulu, on April 5th. I have not seen the
trailer.
The culture has had a ten-year
tradition of misrepresenting Pope Francis as a progressive hero macheting his
way through centuries of oppressive church practices. Even a basic
investigation of the Holy Father demonstrates this is clearly not true, but he
has, unfortunately, done extremely little to disrupt this interpretation. Given
this documentary is produced by Disney and features a conversation with an
eclectic group of people born solely in the 21st century, I make the following
predictions.
1. The concerns of this group will
be a laundry list of favorite liberal causes including LGBT issues, climate
change, immigration, poverty, racism, interreligious dialogue, and sexism.
2. Even though young people (like
any age bracket) have a diversity of concerns, this group will not mention
anything explicit about how to be a good Catholic like liturgical fidelity,
sacramental grace, the road to salvation, or sin.
3. The Pope will be kind and
courteous, listening intently. The answers he gives will not explicitly contradict
Church teaching but will be worded (or perhaps edited) in a way that leaves an
impression of agreement.
4. At no point will the worldview or
assumptions of the young people be challenged, not by the Holy Father, and
certainly not by the filmmakers.
5. In the end, the suggestion of the
film will be that it is the young people themselves, not this well-meaning but
insufficiently radical old man, will be the world’s future hope. This
generation – not Jesus Christ – is our savior.
Let’s examine each of these
predictions one by one:
1. This prediction was 80% true. The
big issue I missed (at least explicitly) was the sex abuse crisis.
2. This prediction was 90% true.
It took the documentary more than thirty minutes to mention Jesus, and when he
did, it was through Milegas, a former catechist and feminist, who blasphemously
claimed our Lord would “walk with women who have had abortions,” and not in the
way you think. Almost every mention of the Church or clergy was critical, and there
was basically no mention of the sacramental life of the church.
3 and 4. This was 70% percent
true. There was only one time when Pope Francis directly and aggressively
challenged one of the participants. When discussing abortion, he compared the
abortionist to a “hit man,” but immediately deflected when someone suggested
such language was offensive.
Usually, he
would change the subject when trying to challenge immoral acts. One especially egregious
woman openly revealed that she was a pornographer and even tried to argue her
decision was pro-family because she was able “to stay at home with [her] son.”
Rather than point out her hypocrisy, the Pope began talking about drugs and the
negative affect they have on society. It was subtle analogy to her own
business, but I’m worried was not efficacious.
5. This was also 70% true. Interspersed
with the conversation are images from the lives of the audience participants.
They hand out food to the homeless, work in a factory, and make out with their lover in a disco club. The film ends with another montage of clips as
these young people return to their lives, followed by weird electronic music
over the credits. The implication is that while this dialogue was intriguing,
it did not fundamentally change anything. The wise men went back by the same
route, and the two friends continued their Road to Emmaus.
One
insight I did gain, however, was Pope Francis’ demeanor. When listening, he
looked as frustrated and exhausted as I did watching this trash. When Milegas
tried to give him a pro-choice banner or another talked about how freeing it
was to break her religious vows, you can see his discomfort. Yet, when speaking
he is always respectful and gentle. Perhaps he is just as annoyed as I am but
feels he is doing God’s work in reaching out to them. It did give me a little compassion
towards his mission, although I still feel it was ineffective.
I
had to watch The Pope Answers in short bursts of five or ten minutes
because it was the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Most of these
young people are lost and aimless, while some are deliberately promoting evil.
Pope Francis, in some respects, has done an amazing job. Laudato Si was
a fantastic encyclical. Yet, he has not been an effective communicator in
contexts like this film, often giving our enemies even more ammunition. His
quote equating abortion to the mafia didn’t make the news, but his baffling
gaffe that “the catechism is in the early stages in [terms] of sexuality” certainly
did. I love Pope Francis, I love his zeal, and I love everyone he engaged here.
However, this is the worst film of the year so far.
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