Francis: The People's Pope (2025)

[bunniefuu]

-[pensive music playing]

-[crowd cheering]

[narrator] Easter Sunday,

Pope Francis at the Vatican...

Buona Pasqua.

...after months of illness,

those final images

of the People's Pope

-in his final hours.

-[crowd cheering, clamoring]

[narrator] Tonight,

a world in mourning...

-[bells tolling]

-...but also in memory...

[crowd member shouting]

[crowd cheering]

...of the legacy he left behind.

[Terry] Pope Francis seemed

to be changing the Church,

bringing it

into the modern world

in a way

that no pope had before.

This is a pope who wanted

to build bridges,

not to build walls.

He not only preached in word,

he preached in deed.

[Mark] He's doing

what Jesus asked him to do.

He's feeding the hungry,

clothing the naked,

sheltering the homeless.

The humility, the modesty,

the accessibility

of this man named Pope Francis.

Muchas gracias, Santo Padre.

[narrator] And reaching out...

I was bullied... [sobs]

...because of how I looked like.

...one by one.

And then I heard a voice,

"This is Pope Francis."

[Elise] He liked to push

the line on some things,

and not every Catholic

was comfortable with that.

His most famous line

when he was asked

about g*y priests,

"As long as they have

a good heart

and are searching for God,

who am I to judge?"

The papacy of Pope Francis

in one word,

and that word is "mercy."

Mercy, mercy, mercy.

[narrator]

Francis: The People's Pope.

[music concludes]

[Terry] The story

of Pope Francis

is the story of a man

who heard the call

of service to God.

[pensive music playing]

[Terry] He is the pontiff,

the bridge

between God and humanity

in the belief of Catholics.

There is no other office

in the world

like the papacy.

[reporter 1] You can feel now

a palpable tension here

as they realize any vote now

could bring a pope.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

Breaking news, we are looking

at the smoke billowing

out of the cast iron chimney

above the Sistine Chapel.

[bells ringing]

[reporter 2] And there

are the bells that confirm.

[reporter 3] There is a pope,

a new pope.

-[crowd cheering]

-[intriguing music playing]

[Terry] It's a sacred moment

in the history of the Church

for a billion Catholics

around the world

-and for the world at large.

-[crowd cheering, applauding]

[in Latin]

[crowd cheering]

[in English] They introduce

in Latin

the name of the pope.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

[crowd cheering]

[Terry] It was a total surprise

when they said Bergoglio,

and I remember every... "Who?"

[reporter 3]

From Argentina, Bergoglio.

[reporter 4]

The first Jesuit pope.

[reporter 5] First pope

from Latin America.

[reporter 6] This is something

I'm not sure any of us expected.

I was screaming at the TV set.

I said, "It's Mario!

It's Jorge! He's my teacher!"

I mean,

I was just jumping with joy.

It was exhilarating.

It was amazing.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

-[camera shutters clicking]

-[pensive music playing]

[Sen] You knew

in the first 30 seconds

that the pontificate

would be different

from the moment he walked out

onto that balcony.

[Thomas] He was not wrapped

in furs.

He did not have red velvet on.

He did not have red shoes on.

And he steps to the microphone,

and he finally said,

[in Italian]

-[crowd cheering]

-[Gibson] "Buona sera."

-[in English] Good evening.

-It was like he met somebody

on the streets in Rome,

an old friend. "Buona sera."

The people in

St. Peter's Square went crazy.

He's the first pope

who didn't come from Europe

in a thousand years.

He's the first pope

from the Western Hemisphere.

[in Italian]

[Sen, in English] And then,

of course, that massive thing

of turning the tables

and inviting the people

to bless him.

[in Italian]

[gentle music playing]

[Thomas, in English] The people

prayed over their pope.

-This was unheard of.

-[crowd cheering]

[reporter 3] Archbishop Gregory,

as we watch this scene,

I hope it's all right

to tell everyone at home

of the tears standing

in your eyes.

[chuckles] It is.

What touched me

was his humility,

the humble request for prayers.

I thought,

"He gets it." [chuckles]

[pensive music playing]

I knew immediately

what kind of pope he would be.

He chose the name of Francis,

one of the greatest

of the saints

of the Catholic Church, right?

Saint Francis of Assisi.

[Paul] Francis was the saint

of the poor, and this was, uh,

like flinging down a gauntlet.

[in Italian]

-[crowd cheering]

-[joyful music playing]

[Thomas, in English] What became

obvious immediately

after Pope Francis was elected

was that he was gonna change

the style of being pope.

[Paul] Instead of going

in the papal limousine,

he got back on the bus

with all the other cardinals.

[Thomas] And then the next day,

he goes to the place

where he was staying

and pays his bill.

[pensive music playing]

[Sen] In the early days,

one of the most shocking things

was his decision

not to live in the papal palace.

[Terry] He decided to live

in the Casa Santa Marta,

in the Vatican guesthouse,

that kind of Motel 6

on the Vatican grounds,

rather than

in the Apostolic Palace.

There were people

who criticized that.

They saw that

as demeaning of the papacy.

"What, you're gonna live

in a guesthouse?"

"What are

we communicating here?"

[Mark] I'd kind of gone,

you know, struggled a little

with my Catholicism.

So, I was more excited

as each day passed by

to learn more about his life

and about what

he had gone through.

-[car horns blaring]

-[upbeat guitar music playing]

[Mark] When I went

to Buenos Aires,

I took these pictures.

So, this picture

is his childhood home.

It's pretty nondescript.

Pope Francis grew up

in Buenos Aires.

His grandparents

were immigrants from Italy.

[Paul] Francis would go

to his grandma every day.

She taught him to pray.

She taught him the rosary.

And his faith

is very much rooted

in that kind

of peasant folk religion

that Grandma Rosa

brought with her.

[Terry] As a young man,

he danced the tango, he dated,

he loved the life

of a normal kid in Argentina.

[Paul] He got a job

in a chemistry laboratory.

And he was on his way

to see his girlfriend,

and he went to church

just to say confession.

[Paul] The conversation

in the confessional

made something chime

in his head.

-He felt seen, touched by grace.

-[gentle music playing]

And that changed his life.

He knew from that moment

that he would give his life

to God.

[Mark] God works

in mysterious ways,

including

in a little confessional

in the middle of Buenos Aires.

It's beautiful.

When he first became a priest,

Pope Francis was a teacher.

-He taught high school.

-He was an amazing teacher.

What immediately

attracted me to him

was that simplicity,

that making fun of himself.

We used to call him "carucha."

Carucha means "funny face,"

because he had

this funny face. [chuckles]

[Terry] He was promoted

very quickly

up through the ranks,

and he became the leader

of the Jesuits

in all of Argentina

at a very young age.

He wasn't experienced.

He hadn't matured.

And so he approached

the job

with a very

authoritarian perspective

-and attitude.

-[g*nsh*t echoing]

[Terry] And that was the time

when Argentina was in crisis.

[somber music playing]

[Paul] There was

a military coup,

and they set about

dealing with anybody

who disagreed with them.

[Yayo] Some of my teachers

did disappear.

Some of my friends,

lots of them disappeared.

[pensive music playing]

It was felt by some members

of the Jesuit order

that he had not protected

two Jesuits sufficiently,

who were picked up

by the military and tortured.

What he always said was,

"I did everything I could

to orchestrate their release."

[Gibson] While he was the head

of the Jesuit order

in Argentina,

and for years afterward,

he was viewed

by some people there

as authoritarian, even divisive.

He became a target of anger

and resentment

by leaders

in his own Society of Jesus,

in the Jesuits,

and his own church.

[Mark] He essentially gets

banished to Crdoba,

and he hears confessions there

for a couple years.

He doesn't really have a job.

That exile became

a kind of metamorphosis,

a time for him

to go inside himself

and rethink everything

and find a certain humility.

This is his bedroom in Crdoba

where he was exiled.

There was a place to kneel

and a bureau

and a picture of his mom

in the room.

[Paul] Those two years

in Crdoba

changed him completely.

The archbishop in...

Buenos Aires had heard

that he was...

he was not in circulation

and thought,

"This is a waste. He'd make

a great junior bishop for me."

[pensive guitar music playing]

[Paul] When he arrived

in Buenos Aires,

he listened,

he consulted people,

he'd stopped being severe

and dogmatic and authoritarian.

He'd had a complete theological

personality transplant

in those two years.

[Terry] So, he was known

as "The Bishop of the Barrios."

He preferred to go

to the poor neighborhoods

and preach there.

[Pope Francis, in Spanish]

[Terry, in English]

He lived simply,

cooked his own food.

He wanted to live

like the people.

[Mark] He's sending a message

that he's not rich and powerful.

That's not what

the Catholic Church is about.

[Terry] He'd come to realize

the job wasn't being powerful

and influential.

The job was being useful

and true

to the poor and the people

who need you most.

And when he eventually

went to Rome

and was elected pope,

one of the women

in the slum that I visited said,

"He's gone to Rome,

but he's taken the mud

of the slums on his shoes."

-[crowd cheering]

-[dramatic music playing]

[Jeannine] I questioned whether

we would've had

a Francis pontificate

if Benedict hadn't resigned.

[reporter] Glorious day

here in Rome

where history is being made.

We are seeing the final hours

of a living pope.

[Terry] You could feel

the Church

shake a little

on its foundations.

[music concludes]

-[crowd cheering, applauding]

-[suspenseful music playing]

[reporter] They came today

by the thousands to say goodbye.

Pope Benedict, the first pope

since the Middle Ages

to step down, smiling today.

"Wait, he's resigning?"

It was a shock.

Nobody thought popes

could do that.

No pope had resigned

for over 600 years.

It was the most radical step

that Benedict could have taken.

He didn't feel well enough

to do the job.

-[dramatic music playing]

-[reporter 1] A glorious day

here in Rome,

where history is being made.

We are seeing the final hours

of a living pope.

[Terry] You could feel

the Church

shake a little

on its foundations.

[reporter 2] Vatican cameras

will follow Benedict's departure

minute by minute.

[Terry] They didn't have

any tradition around,

"What do you do

when a pope leaves office?"

[reporter 3]

And we see the helicopter

over our shoulders right now,

as the pope is taking off.

[reporter 4] At the hour

of eight o'clock, local time,

he will officially cease

being the pontiff.

[Paul] Of course, this created

a particular situation

-for Pope Francis.

-[dramatic music continues]

[Paul]

There were two popes alive,

the radical pope

and the conservative pope.

And the potential for division

in the Church was there.

And Francis knew about that.

[Gibson] Pope Benedict

was really

an old-fashioned

German Catholic.

[reporter] Benedict was known

as John Paul II's enforcer

of religious doctrine.

[Gibson] He saw the Church

as a bulwark

against the modern world.

It was a fortress.

[dramatic music builds]

[Gibson] Francis has

a completely different view.

"No, we must

break down the walls."

"We must let people in."

[Terry] The Two Popes,

that movie

is not historically accurate,

but there's something

emotionally true about it.

You talk about walls

as if they're bad things.

A house is built of walls.

Strong walls.

Did Jesus build walls?

His face is a face of mercy.

The bigger the sinner,

the warmer the welcome.

It sums up in a metaphor,

the divide in the Church.

[joyful music playing]

[Terry] Pope Francis

represented the next step,

the step outward into the world,

-because he was an outsider.

-[crowd cheering]

[Terry] He didn't come

from the Vatican itself.

He came from Argentina,

where people were in despair.

He felt that the Church

had to change to connect

with a changing world.

[Wilton] He never lost

the common touch

and made himself available

to people.

[Nicole] Francis would invite

the kids onto the Popemobile

to do the rounds

around the square.

That informality,

the breaking with the protocol,

made him popular.

This letter was so welcome.

Oh, my goodness.

Pope Francis

would just write to you

like you're writing to a friend.

He says,

"Thank you, Sister Jeannine,

for your closeness,

your compassion,

and your tenderness."

-[in Spanish]

-[crowd laughing]

[in English] He had a great

sense of humor. He was funny.

[in Spanish]

[crowd laughing, applauding]

[music concludes]

[pensive music playing]

[in English] He brought to Rome

that sense that the place

of the powerful is with

the least powerful and the poor.

And he tried to live that out.

For example,

Francis went to prisons.

He goes to the peripheries.

He washes the feet of inmates

to show that the way

to be a pope

is not to be on high,

it's to be down low.

But it's really gestures

that showed us who this pope was

and showed us what this pope

wanted us to learn.

-[crowd cheering]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Gibson] I remember,

Francis had just become pope,

and he was reading

these horrible headlines

of these migrant boats

from North Africa

capsizing in the Mediterranean.

He's just horrified by it.

He wants to do something.

He says, "I wanna go down

to Lampedusa,"

this island

off the coast of Sicily.

[Thomas] He went there

to remind Europe

and the whole world

that these people

are our brothers and sisters.

[Pope Francis, in Italian]

[Thomas, in English] And that

we cannot allow them

just to drown.

-[crowd cheering]

-[cheerful music playing]

[Terry] Everybody outside

the Church

thought he was

the greatest thing.

He was cool in a way

that no pope was.

Pope Francis

was kind of a rock star.

He was on the cover

of Vanity Fair,

Rolling Stone, everywhere.

You even had Rihanna,

who dressed as the pope.

It was a kind of tribute

to Pope Francis.

[Elise] He liked to push

the line on some things.

Not every Catholic

was comfortable with it.

[in Spanish]

-[group member] S. [laughs]

-[group laughing]

[Terry, in English]

Young people around the world

challenged him

on controversial issues.

-[somber music playing]

-[in Spanish]

[Pope Francis]

[in English] Things like that,

conservative Catholics

weren't comfortable with.

They didn't know

where he was gonna stop.

[Gibson] They thought

he was losing

the traditional doctrines

and teachings of the Church.

[reporter]

In a controversial move,

he allowed transgender people

to be baptized,

serve as godparents,

and be witnesses

at church weddings.

The opposition within the Church

to Francis was fierce.

And when the Argentines

would hand him up a cup of mat

and he would sip from it,

it drove the Vatican

security guards crazy.

The pope turned to them,

he said, "Don't worry."

"They're Argentines. They're not

my fellow cardinals." [chuckles]

[crowd cheering]

[Terry] He governed this church

of a billion and more people.

But his real job was one person

at a time.

And that's one of the reasons

he was "The Cold-Call Pope."

[mellow music playing]

[Terry] Andrea Rubera

is a g*y man in Italy.

He and his partner

had three beautiful kids.

And he wrote a letter

to Pope Francis saying,

"I don't know if I'll be able

to send these children

to Catholic school.

We want to raise them Catholic."

[Andrea]

I was really in anguish.

I don't know if my parish

could be welcoming kids

from a rainbow family.

But I was also scared

that they could feel

some sense of exclusion.

[church bells ringing]

[Terry] And a couple of days

after he sent it,

the phone rang.

[Andrea] I took the call,

and then I heard a voice,

"Mr. Rubera, is it you?

This is Pope Francis."

He told me, "Please, you have to

bring your kids to the parish."

"It will be

a welcoming house for them."

So, I went to the parish,

and I told them about

the phone call with the pope.

And the priest told me,

"I can assure you

that the kids will be protected,

will be welcomed,

they will be loved."

From that moment on,

we felt that we could live

as a family

among other families.

[crowd cheering]

[Sen] Pope Francis understood

the mercy that says,

"I see you, I understand you,

I accept you,

and I love you for who you are,

what you are, where you are."

[Thomas] He recognized

that people live in the gray.

None of us are perfect.

This was a priority for him

to present the Church

as a field hospital

for the injured.

[uplifting music playing]

[Terry] He said,

"Go to where people need us."

[Thomas]

"We don't turn people away."

He turned the pontificate

into a universal parish.

-[crowd cheering]

-[camera shutters clicking]

-[hopeful music playing]

-[crowd cheering, applauding]

[in Italian]

[laughs]

[crowd laughing, applauding]

[Gibson, in English] When he

told those schoolchildren,

"Look, I didn't want

to become pope,"

that was the truth.

He never planned on that,

and it's not something

he wanted.

But he also said there was

a great sense

-of spiritual liberation.

-[crowd cheering]

He turned the pontificate

into a universal parish,

and he was the pastor

of the whole parish.

-[instrumental music playing]

-[crowd cheering]

[Terry] He said,

"Go to where people need us."

"Go be in the world."

"We are a field hospital

on the b*ttlefield."

"There are wounded people

everywhere."

"They need us."

-[crowd applauding]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Terry] "Get up, go out, help."

[crowd cheering]

[Paul] He looked for places

where he felt

he was particularly needed.

And in part, that was places

where popes had not been before.

-[g*nshots echoing]

-[indistinct chatter]

[pensive music playing]

He was the first pope

to go to an active w*r zone

in the Central African Republic.

They said, "Holy Father,

you can't land the plane here."

He said, "We're gonna land here.

Otherwise,

I'm gonna grab a parachute

and I'm gonna jump out."

[indistinct chatter, singing]

[Thomas]

He is an international leader.

If he doesn't do it, who will?

[choir singing indistinctly]

[Nicole] In Congo,

the meeting with the women

holding up their arms

that had been hacked off

by a machete,

it was really powerful.

[crowd cheering]

[Thomas] Who can bring

the reporters to a country

like that and wake up people

who just don't care

about what's happening

outside their own neighborhood?

[Sen] Popes like symbols.

The Catholic Church

likes symbols.

Pope Francis understood

the power of symbols.

[soft instrumental music

playing]

[Gibson] And he embraces

the father

of that poor Syrian boy

who was washed up on the shore.

And it's the most graphic,

awful image.

And Francis makes sure

to not just greet him.

It's not just a photo op.

He spends more

than an hour with this man,

talking to him, listening.

[Terry] The governments

weren't doing enough.

That was a scandal.

And he wanted to be there

and push them.

When the pope went to Lesbos,

this is a place where...

-[cries]

-...scores of Syrians

have died

trying to get into Europe.

[cries, speaks indistinctly]

[in Italian]

[Thomas, in English] And so

while he was there, he decided,

"Well,

I'm telling everybody in Europe

to welcome these people.

Well, maybe I should, too."

And so he brought refugees

on the plane with him

back to Rome.

One of those families

was Nour Essa's.

[Nour]

He passed crossing our section.

Pope Francis has offered us

an opportunity

-to begin a new life.

-[indistinct chatter]

Thank you. We appreciate

all the things that you did.

-He said that we are humans.

-[indistinct chatter]

And he saved us

because we are humans.

[Oliver] When I lived in Libya,

it was quite impossible to think

that I would go in a country

that would accept me,

that would make me feel safe.

Pope Francis expressed

his closeness

towards the refugees.

He told us

that we had a new chance

of living a life

and we should make

the best of it.

[Paul] For Francis,

it was really important

to try to embody

the message in himself

and showing in his own person

what needed to be done.

[intriguing music playing]

[Terry] He wasn't an actor,

but he had a sense of presence,

of what you could do

to change people's minds

and hearts.

[indistinct chatter]

[Terry] He went

to the Israel-Palestine border.

I was with him in Israel,

where he walked up

to the wall

that the Israelis had built

to keep the Palestinians

on one side

and them on the other side.

[Thomas] He didn't say a word.

He did not say a word.

He just stood there and prayed.

At the Western Wall,

he didn't pray on his own,

but he prayed

with his Jewish friend

and his Muslim friend

and that they embraced.

[Abraham] We form

a very iconic image

that is capable to give

an important message

in the building

of a better world.

[hopeful music playing]

[Paul] The three faiths united

at a place where faiths

are normally divided.

[hopeful upbeat music playing]

[Terry] On the eve of his trip

to the United States,

ABC News got

this incredible opportunity.

What we were about

to do was make history.

[Terry] A town hall meeting

with Pope Francis.

[music concludes]

[soft instrumental music

playing]

[Terry] On the eve of his trip

to the United States,

ABC News got

this incredible opportunity.

A town hall meeting

with Pope Francis.

It was an extraordinary journey

to the Vatican

and something

that we never thought

would even be possible.

What we were about to do

was make history.

[Terry] There's groups

of people in communities

around the United States

interacting directly

with Pope Francis.

[attendee] Good morning, Father.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

It's been my childhood dream

to meet you one day.

At the age of 16,

I had to become

the breadwinner of the family.

Having to...

support a family of six

really made it hard on me.

One of the reasons

I think the pope agreed

to do this town hall

is because he knew

that there would be stories

across America that would not

only move the pope,

but that would move the country.

When I started going to school,

I was picked on.

I was bullied... [sobs]

...because of how I looked like.

[somber music playing]

Music has always been something

I was able to use to escape

all the bullying and everything.

[Muir] And as she was explaining

to the pope that

that this was what

it took for her

to overcome the bullying,

the pope then asks her,

"Can you sing for me?"

May I ask of you

to sing a song for me?

[chuckles]

-Be courageous.

-[crowd applauding]

[singing in Spanish]

[Muir]

That moment in and of itself

summed up the kind of connection

this pope had almost immediately

-when he became pope.

-[crowd cheering, applauding]

[hopeful music playing]

[narrator] The pope's first trip

to America,

people were excited to see him.

[crowd member]

We love you, Pope Francis!

[crowd cheering]

I'll never forget the crowds

that had gathered

all throughout Washington, D.C.

[crowd cheering]

It's a big deal when the vicar

of Christ comes

to your country.

[Muir] Everything

about that visit reminded us

of the humility, the modesty,

the accessibility

of this man named Pope Francis.

There was a little girl

who ran out into the street.

And you could see

the officers stop her

and begin to take her back

over to the side.

[pensive music playing]

And you saw the pope signal,

"No, no, no, let her come over."

So they brought Sofa Cruz

over to the pope.

And you see that she's carrying

with her a poster.

And she brought that poster

to say, "My heart is sad

because of discrimination

in this country."

It was a plea for help

from the pope.

How do we bring people together?

[indistinct chatter, cheering]

[Gibson] He was coming

to a country

that was on the verge

of electing Donald Trump,

that was on the verge

of a division

that we could only imagine

at the time.

And he saw it coming.

Mr. Speaker!

The Pope of the Holy See.

[Gibson]

And he was the first pope

to address a joint session

of Congress.

That tableau was so striking

when you saw Pope Francis

with two Catholic

former altar boys behind him,

then Vice President Joe Biden,

and then Speaker

of the House John Boehner.

One of the things about Francis

was that he didn't shy away

from saying what he thought

ought to be said.

[crowd applauding]

[Gibson] It was so powerful.

And the words he spoke to them

were to be good politicians,

to bring people together,

to work for the common good.

[Elise] He always says unity

and diversity,

like we can be different

and we can still be unified.

-[somber music playing]

-[Gibson] His most famous line

when he was asked

about g*y priests.

"As long as they have

a good heart

and are searching for God,

who am I to judge?"

And it wasn't

a special dispensation

he was giving

to gays and lesbians.

-It was for anybody.

-That's revolutionary.

Because in the past,

I think the attitude was...

"I am here to judge."

He changed the approach.

He changed the tone.

-He changed the conversation.

-Pope Francis didn't turn

these people away.

He counseled them.

He listened to them.

It was one

of the most important parts

of his papacy.

[soft music playing]

[Yayo] One day, my phone rang,

and I didn't recognize

the number.

He said, you know,

"I do want to give you a hug

when I'm in Washington."

-[indistinct chatter]

-[Terry] While he was in

the United States,

the pope met with Yayo Grassi.

And this was significant.

He is an old friend of the pope.

In fact, he was his student

in Buenos Aires

many decades ago.

And he's a g*y man.

And he brought his partner

with him.

[indistinct chatter]

[Terry] And the pope

greeted them both

and spent time with them.

[Yayo] He came to meet me,

and I said to him,

"You're crazy.

You haven't had time to rest."

And he says, "That is okay.

It's nice to see you."

This was at a time

when the Supreme Court

had just approved g*y marriage.

So kind of the culture wars

were alive and well

at the time of this visit.

So it was his way of saying,

"This is the encounter

that mattered."

[indistinct chatter]

[Mark] His only

one-on-one meeting in America

is with his former student,

who's g*y, and his partner.

He's sending a message.

He's not judging.

He's welcoming all,

and he's looking

for God in all people.

-Gracias.

-[crowd] Gracias.

[crowd member]

Muchas felicidades.

[narrator] Pope Francis

would go on to permit priests

to bless same-sex couples

in a new papal rule,

a seismic change

in Vatican policy.

The most impressive

and lasting images

were from the prison

and he loves going to prison.

These are the real outcasts

of society.

[in Spanish]

[uplifting music playing]

[Terry, in English] He says,

"I want you to know,

I'm a sinner too.

That's who I am, I know that."

"And I'm here

because of the grace of God,

and it's there for you too."

[Gibson] He's holding the hands

of these tattooed prisoners

who are in there

for all kinds of violent crimes.

And he says, "You are not lost.

The pope is with you."

[Muir] I think Pope Francis knew

of his power to connect.

And I think that that

perhaps was the most powerful

thing he had in his papacy,

where he would reach out

and often with few words,

able to signal to someone

that he understood their pain,

that they were not

walking alone.

[music concludes]

[soft music playing]

People love Pope Francis,

but they didn't love

what they were hearing

in many of their parishes.

[reporter] The sex abuse scandal

in the Roman Catholic Church

is widening.

[music concludes]

-[gentle music playing]

-[birds chirping]

[church bells ringing]

[Terry] Pope Francis seemed

to be changing the Church,

bringing it into

the modern world

in a way

that no pope had before.

[Gibson] Divorced

and remarried Catholics

never could take

communion before.

He made the death penalty

totally verboten.

He did increase the number

of women and laymen

in positions of authority

in the Vatican.

[wind whooshes]

[Thomas] Pope Francis

was the first pope in history

to have a scientific training

before he entered

the seminary.

And he listened

to what scientists said

about global warming,

and it terrified him.

It's not that you just recycle

because it's the green thing

to do.

It's because it's the way

we protect our common home.

Those who are gonna

be hurt most

by climate change

are the poorest.

That's what he sees

is really at risk here.

[Anne] Pope Francis said

beautiful and powerful things

about climate change,

about immigration,

about income inequality.

But the problem

is he had limited

to no power to correct

those injustices.

Where he had supreme power

was in the Catholic Church.

[pensive music playing]

[Gibson] It still took Francis

a while

to learn how bad

the sex abuse scandal was,

how pervasive it was,

and how global it was.

And he made mistakes.

He admitted he made mistakes.

[music concludes]

[Juan] I keep this picture

to remind me of this kid,

so innocent and so fun,

and then so many, many years

of darkness.

[intriguing music playing]

[Juan] I was 14, 15 years old.

My dad died,

and I was extremely sad.

So someone said,

"Hey, why don't you go to see

Father Fernando Karadima?"

I went with, you know,

my little uniform from school,

you know, and the first thing

he said to me is,

"Juan Carlos, I will be

your spiritual director,

but you owe me obedience."

[Gibson] It was a horrific case

of abuse

by this almost cult-like figure

of Father Karadima.

[narrator] Father Karadima

had been sanctioned

for the abuse by Pope Benedict,

but controversy

about the longstanding

cover-up continued

when Pope Francis appointed

one of Karadima's

alleged protectors,

Juan Barros, to bishop.

[Terry] In 2018,

Pope Francis went to Chile

and this visit became

a real inflection point

-in his papacy.

-[camera shutters clicking]

[somber music playing]

[Nicole] We came in

from the airport

in the motorcade

and there were no crowds

and if there were crowds,

they were holding up

protest banners.

[Anne] He is asked by a reporter

about the allegations

against Bishop Barros,

and he snaps.

[in Spanish]

-[camera shutter clicking]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Thomas, in English]

Pope Francis

couldn't get it through his mind

that bishops

might be lying to him.

"Bishops, they don't lie

to the pope."

[Elise] He sent

his investigators

to check out the situation

and to do this huge

in-depth investigation.

And then he did

a very dramatic about-face.

-[pensive music playing]

-[birds chirping]

[church bells ringing]

[Anne] He invited Juan Carlos

and the others

to Rome to apologize

to them in person.

[Juan] To be respected

and to be acknowledged

that way when nobody

had done that for me

or for any survivor,

it just meant the world.

[Anne] Pope Francis summoned

the Chilean bishops to Rome.

He forced them all

to resign en masse.

In the end,

he accepted only nine,

but it was quite impressive.

[in Spanish]

[in English]

I think the pope realized

that he had made

a terrible mistake

and went on to develop

a lovely relationship

with Juan Carlos.

[narrator] He also appointed

Juan Carlos

to the Vatican's

Advisory Commission

on Clergy Sexual Abuse.

I've always said, "I want to try

and help from within."

[intriguing music playing]

[Anne] The sexual abuse

and the cover-up

have damaged the Church

more than anything else

in centuries.

It has caused

countless numbers of Catholics

to leave the Church.

There's the old adage

that the Vatican thinks

in terms of centuries.

Change is not

in the Vatican's DNA.

But that was the position

that he was placed in.

He did his best

on the issue of sex abuse.

He held this historic summit.

He issued new Vatican laws

for mandatory reporting

for targeting bishops

who cover up.

[Sen] But whatever he did

was never enough,

partly because the issues

that he had to deal with

were just so enormous,

no one person

could deal with them

in any one papacy.

[uplifting music playing]

So who is next?

I think the next conclave's

gonna be unlike anything

that we have ever seen,

because it

will be truly international.

And that is

an unpredictable process.

[music concludes]

[soft uplifting music playing]

Pope Francis is going to be

remembered as a pastor,

as a warm-hearted

parish priest

-who happened to be pope.

-[crowd cheering]

[Elise] He shaped

the Church's own vision.

He made it more global,

he made it more international.

[Terry] Pope Francis made it

a mission of his

to appoint cardinals

from the periphery,

from places which

had never had cardinals,

from all over the world,

especially Asia.

That'll change the dynamics.

Whatever happens next,

whether the next pope

is a Francis pope

or the pendulum swings

back to

a more conservative pope,

Francis' way of being pope

will stand there.

And people will always

be able to say, "Yes,

but Francis said this."

[crowd cheering]

[Terry] He opened the Church

to the way people live today

in their economic life,

in their moral life,

in their romantic life.

I felt heard

in the presence of Pope Francis

because being a refugee,

what you just want

is people to understand

that you too are suffering.

I was able

to, like, touch his hand

and I felt peace internally,

honestly.

[crowd cheering]

[Jeannine] I don't have

the adequate words

to express how

he has impacted my ministry.

Pope Francis took me out

from under the cloud

and put me

in the bright sunshine again.

[crowd cheering]

I feel that he changed

my life forever

and that he's always going

to be by my side.

The papacy of Pope Francis

in one word,

and that word is "mercy."

I think all of us long for,

yearn,

to be seen,

to be accepted,

to be understood.

And that's the kind of mercy

-that Pope Francis promoted.

-[crowd cheering]

It gave me hope again.

[children clamoring]

[Thomas] That things

can get better.

The world can get better,

the Church can get better.

[music concludes]