The Pope on Rai 3 from Fazio, Mancuso: “On TV to reach everyone. With empathy and humor, Francesco touched people’s hearts “

VATICAN CITY. “I had some perplexities about the Pope’s TV interview, in an unprecedented popular context for a Pontiff, and instead he literally won me over”. This was exclaimed by Vito Mancuso, Catholic theologian and philosopher (moreover considered by a large part of the ecclesial galaxy a “heretic”), after following the historic conversation by Fabio Fazio in connection with the Pope at “Che Tempo Che Fa” last night on Rai 3. After the first questions and answers Mancuso feared that «we would dwell” only “on” horizontal “issues, albeit burning and decisive such as migrants, war, the Mediterranean seen as a” cemetery “, exploitation of the planet. Then the dialogue also took on a touching and illuminating “vertical” dimension ».

Can you explain us?
«Francesco and Fazio“ climbed ”on topics such as the sense of pain, the suffering of children, prayer, the problem of evil, trust, freedom. And at that point they reached a level of maximum completeness, as can be done on television. Fabio Fazio was very good. And Pope Francis revealed all of his spontaneity, sincerity and human depth. There was reflection and evangelizing drive, not spectacularization ».

What passage do you choose?
“It was wonderful when Bergoglio spoke about the sense of humor, which is closely linked to the spiritual dimension: being witty also means living spirituality. A very precious underlining for these dark times: today there is an immense need for spirituality, which cannot be separated from solitude, recollection, but also humor ».

What was the Pope’s communicative goal?
“I believe that the spirit that animated the Pontiff in accepting to be a guest on a TV program like the one hosted by Fazio can be expressed through these words of the apostle Paul:” I have done everything for everyone to save someone at any cost ” (1 Corinthians 9:22). In that passage St. Paul says that he “made himself as a Jew for the Jews to gain the Jews” (verse 20), “as one who is without Law, for the purpose of gaining those who are without Law” (21) and shows how his evangelizing intention led him to dialogue with everyone, meeting them wherever they are ».

Do you think the Church should follow this path?
«Appearing after his resurrection, Jesus ordered the apostles to go” to the extreme limit of the Earth “and the entire history of the Church perfectly shows that it is pervaded by enthusiasm. Today the Earth geographically speaking no longer has extreme limits, it is all perfectly known, it is all center and periphery, it is used to define it as a “global village”, but anthropologically speaking there are still extreme limits and the world of entertainment and entertainment is certainly one of these. So it is in the order of things that the Church also goes into “light” programs like that of Fazio, not to mention that this atmosphere of lightness can become one of those necessary virtues of the new millennium of which Italo Calvino spoke in the “American Lessons”, that is, the opposite of heaviness and seriousness ».

But in the Catholic galaxy there are those who disapproved of this choice by Bergoglio …
“There was a danger. It was not about the Church, it was about the Pope. If the desire to make himself everything to everyone erases his difference from any other apostle or missionary, it is the supreme office of the Catholic Church that suffers. This was the big risk. But Francesco was very good at overcoming him, and Fazio, with his questions and with his tone of voice, was very careful not to undermine the sacredness of the Holy Father. And so Francis in a generalist television program was able to be the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church and at the same time the Pope of the people, who knows how to speak to the hearts of people in an extraordinary way, with an engaging and encouraging empathy “.

The Pope on Rai 3 from Fazio, Mancuso: “On TV to reach everyone. With empathy and humor, Francesco touched people’s hearts ”