CNN: "The People's Pope"

Tuesday night CNN aired a Special Report, “The People’s Pope”, to complement the Pope’s visit this week to Washington, Philadelphia and New York, trailer here.   Chris Cuomo hosted.

The film was a straightforward biography of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.  His personality today is much like that as a teen. He had a girl friend as a teen and was apparently headed for a career as a physician as a typical heterosexual married male with his own kids, but at 16 had a sudden religious conversion which is hard for a lay person to explain.

He was quieter than most teens, though, and more reflective.

Early in his career he was fairly authoritarian in his leadership style. Because of his dissent from the established hierarchy, he was “exiled” for a while, before his career resumed.  He did not want to be elected Pope and was relieved when Benedict took over, but was in clear line when Benedict resigned.

The film showed the black and white smoke during the Papal election, as in the 1968 film “The Shoes of the Fisherman”.

Pope Francis has emphasized humility and walking in others’ shoes. He has also emphasized non-judgmentalism, on issues like sexuality and the LGBT community.

  

The documentary pointed out that many of the old establishment felt that the conservative hard line rules on the teachings of the Church gave Catholicism an “identity”, which might become less distinct under Francis.