Comments on Netflix’s “Two Popes”
Call Cebu City blessed by the Lord, after all the warnings given to us that typhoon Ursula would devastate our Christmas Day, we only got strong rains, which wasn’t even as strong as the other rains that we are used to getting. Even on Christmas Day itself, it was only cloudy and didn’t rain at all. Of course the only report I got was from a friend in the town of Daanbantayan that suffered from the strong winds. I’m sure Bantayan Island, Leyte, and Samar were also devastated by the storm.
Let me remind you that the path of typhoon Ursula was almost exactly the same as super typhoon Yolanda, so it wasn’t difficult for us to consider what would happen in Cebu City if the typhoon struck. Of course, our prayers worked and we were spared from the wrath of typhoon Ursula. Perhaps in the next few days we will know the magnitude of the devastation that this typhoon brought to the Visayas.
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In St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis ushered in Christmas for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics with a message of unconditional love, saying, “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us… You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you.” The Pope made this statement during the Christmas Eve midnight mass. What a beautiful message from Pope Francis.
Mind you, during this week, I saw “The Two Popes” in Netflix and one thing that caught my attention was when Pope Benedict XVI and then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio were discussing about taking Holy Communion and Pope Benedict asked Cardinal Bergoglio if he should be strict in not allowing Holy Communion to divorcees or other sinners. Cardinal Bergoglio replied, “Holy Communion is not a reward for the virtuous, it is food for the starving.”
Now whether this conversation between the two really took place we really don’t know. Biopic master Anthony McCarten merely says that the movie is essentially a stage play involving Pope Benedict XVI played by Anthony Hopkins and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio played by Jonathan Pryce. We all know that Pope Benedict was an old-school, no-compromise pope, while Cardinal Bergoglio wanted to reform the Catholic Church.
I checked on Google to find out what was written about this Netflix show and it says, “Through their hour-plus running argument, The Two Popes explores a basic problem of our age. Namely, we are becoming less and less interested in the humanity of others and more interested in knowing where they stand. This is identity politics, and it’s awful. Of course, where a person stands on life-or-death issues is vitally important. But not every issue is life-or-death. And as the differences between sides are pumped up by a conflict-driven news media and special-interest groups, it gets harder and harder to see opponents as human beings created in God’s image, just like ourselves. Which is what makes this sweet little film so timely and worthwhile.”
So in the sense that the film discussed a very important topic about who should be prevented from taking Holy Communion, the response of Cardinal Bergoglio was almost perfect. This is why I’m encouraging our readers to find the time to see this movie because rarely do we see a movie that seems to be addressed to us Catholics, where the discussion talks about issues surrounding the Catholic Church today.
Anyway, back to Pope Francis, we learned that earlier this month, he removed a pontifical secrecy rule, which critics said prevented priests and victims from reporting abuse, and last May he passed a landmark measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse to report it to their superiors. Indeed, certain reforms in the Vatican are underway but we would not dare discuss them until they become final and executory.
For instance, at the beginning of this article, we wrote about what Cardinal Bergoglio said about what he thought the Holy Communion was, that it was not a reward for the virtuous but food for the starving. This can bring about another debate within the Catholic Church as for thousands of years, the Holy Communion was supposed to be taken only by those prepared to take it. However, I have no question that sinners should also take the Holy Communion as a gift from our Lord Jesus Christ.
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