The data is clear. Fewer and fewer young people consider themselves believers. A study by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), in July 2021, showed that the age group between 18 and 24 years declared themselves, for the most part, as atheist or agnostic. It was also the group in which the percentage of Catholics had fallen the most: from 78% in 1990 to 28%. The Church is faced with the problem of the disaffection of young people, but it does not seem to react either. Perhaps that is where it is understood that Pope Francis has agreed to Jordi Évole’s request to star in Amen. Francis responds, a documentary that premieres on Disney+ on April 5 and where the journalist has achieved something never seen before: the documented and recorded meeting of the highest authority of the Catholic Church with a group of young people.
Hakuna, the Christian pop group that breaks capacity faster than Taburete
Further
The idea is that they are the ones who ask Francisco what they want. His doubts, interests or concerns. Many of them are not believers, others are, one is a Muslim… The success of this special, which Évole co-directs with Màrius Sánchez (also co-director of the television show Lo de Évole), is that the casting of chosen kids gets the Church to respond to the most difficult issues and to their most controversial opinions. Bergoglio displays his Argentine charisma, but there is little he can do in the face of this selection of young people, including a Catholic in favor of abortion, a non-binary gender person, a victim of Church abuse, and a believer who works creating sexual content on the internet. or a Senegalese whose brother arrived in Spain in a boat.
The most painful testimony is that of Juan Cuatrecasas, a victim of abuse at an Opus Dei school when he was 11 years old. His abuser was sentenced to 11 years, but it was finally reduced to two, and he never went to prison. The Church allowed him to continue teaching. Cuatrecasas gives the Pope the letter that he himself wrote to him and asks him how it is possible that this person has gotten away with it. He puts a mirror in front of her. A terrible mirror that shows the inaction of his institution. The documentary records the Pope’s face in one of the most powerful images. His answer leaves no one happy. She is shy. He condemns the abuses, but he believes that the Church is doing everything possible and that he is having an exemplary attitude right now.
Another of the most tense moments is the one that comes with the response to Milagros, Catholic, practitioner and defender of abortion. She believes that her mission as a Catholic is to accompany women who decide so and she criticizes that the Church points them out, makes them feel guilty. Milagros, through tears, gives the Pope a green handkerchief in favor of the right to abortion. Francisco’s response, which even compares someone who aborts to someone who resorts to a hit man to end a life, makes all the women present — except one, who instead goes to abortion centers to convince the girls not to do it—jump.
Miracles becomes the documentary on the Pope’s worst nightmare, answering and questioning the Church’s position on women. Francis is in favor of the fact that they cannot be bishops or popes, and in a rhetorical turn that borders on the absurd, he says that the Church is feminist because she is feminine: she is “the” Church. Milagros’s gaze pierces him. Sex is another thorny issue. While Francisco believes that sex is beautiful, and that the Church has a pending task in knowing how to convey this to young people, he does not support the young woman who is dedicated to creating adult content on the Internet. She says that it’s the first time she’s had time for her daughter and that it’s the best job she’s ever had, but the Pope dodges the subject.
The pope saw that we were head on, that we weren’t there giving the shit away, and not being a believer does not mean that we live outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. It’s there and it permeates everything.
Jordi Évole
— Journalist
Issues that show a brutal disconnection with young people, who do not understand their position on feminism, abortion or abuse. It is more forceful on the issue of immigration: it accuses governments and “closed ideologies” of promoting hatred towards refugees and migrants. “We tolerate you but we do not integrate you”, says Francisco about the message that many countries use and blames the legacy of colonialism for the current situation. He also points out that right now there are “first class migrants and second class migrants”, referring to those who come from the Ukrainian War and those who come from Africa. He believes that there are still cases of slavery, and makes it clear that working 11 hours for 600 euros is “modern slavery.”
an act of bravery
Évole and Màrius Sánchez confess that they are not Catholics, and that in fact that was one of the first things they told the Pope when they met him. “It is also true that we valued the believers that we had around us. In the case of Màrius, his grandfather, and in my case, my mother. I think that helped us. The Pope saw that we were going face to face, that we were not there making the partridge dizzy. But not being a believer does not mean that we live outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. That is there and it permeates practically everything and I would even tell you that Christianity represents values and principles, with which I quite agree”, says Jordi Évole.
They were always clear that the people who were going to sit in front of the Pope could not have “the hegemonic thought of the Church on this subject.” “We believe that, if the documentary is of any use, it is to make it clear that polarization is not necessary to live, that each one can live with their own thoughts but dialoguing, showing their point of view and respecting that of the other. I think it is a documentary that flees from the trenches and for me it is very brave that Pope Francis wanted to play, not in the opposite camp, but with people who he knew would not have the same opinion. That for me is enriching”, says the journalist.
They explain that the Pope was given “some of the issues that would come up in the conversation.” They never hid “the most complicated for him.” “We told him that we would talk about sexual abuse, sexuality, abortion… but in no case did we give him a profile of the boys or the questions,” says Sánchez about some boys chosen from 200 interviews. In choosing the finalists, they knew that there were issues that were essential, and that they also clashed with the postulates of the Church. “Then there are others who appear. We did not want to talk about the loss of faith, but an ex-nun who thinks like Lucía appears and that could not not be there. We hadn’t thought of talking about pornography either, although sex did seem interesting to us, but suddenly Alejandra appeared, who was a wonderful mother who used pornography in her speech to claim herself as a woman, and we also found it very interesting”, adds Màrius Sánchez that leaves a question in the air: how many politicians would accept this proposal?
Although Évole does not appear on the screen, giving all the prominence to the Pope and the kids, they were there throughout a process in which Francisco again shows his closure regarding issues such as women or abortion, something that Évole was not surprised: “I think we are not aware of what a Pope represents. If we suddenly get there and the Pope says something favorable to abortion or says that there may be a ‘mama’ instead of a Pope, he would be making a complete amendment to the entire history of an institution that he is representing right now.” .
I would love for the pope to have had another speech on abortion and on the role of women in the Church, but I think it’s the pope
Jordi Évole
— Journalist
“I think that this Pope, in whom we have all placed our hopes regarding the opening of the Church, makes an approach simply by participating in the documentary, sitting there with these kids. I think the Pope is already winning because he is demonstrating something that no other type of world leader would do right now. I think we demand too much sometimes. I would love for him to have had another speech on abortion and on the role of women in the Church, but I think he is the Pope. Let’s see who is going to come here to amend everything that the Church has been saying for 2,000 years ”, he ditch.
Beyond the value that both journalists place on their work, this documentary has a special flavor for them. Thanks to the meeting between Juan Cuatrecasas and the Pope, the case of his abuser was reopened. Francis and the young man exchanged their information, and it is the Pope who “is personally leading and supervising the trial.” “We contacted him yesterday afternoon to find out how he was and he responded, as he traditionally does, with a handwritten note that he attached to the email, and told us that the case was continuing,” he says. A format that, for Évole, has something reminiscent of youth, when we “sat on top of the bench to eat pipes”. A “daily” situation with franchise wood and with many possibilities of sweeping Disney + in the middle of Easter.