FAITH MATTERS: POPULAR POPE FRANCIS CONTINUES TO FOLLOW HIS OWN SCRIPT

Faith Matters: Popular Pope Francis continues to follow his own script

Pope Francis leaves a Mass for newly-elected cardinals, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Feb. 15, 2015.

Paige Finnerty | The Jersey Journal

Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal By Rev. Alexander Santora/For the Jersey Journal
on March 09, 2015 at 6:06 PM, updated March 10, 2015 at 11:36 AM

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I attended my first "red carpet" movie premiere in Manhattan. There were no celebrities, cameras, a red carpet or even a theater. But the back of the LaFarge Library at America House near Carnegie Hall had free popcorn, candy and soda.

And it was all for a film on Pope Francis, now a bona fide movie star in the eponymous "The Francis Effect," a 75-minute film produced by salt + light media out of Canada. The closest we had to stars was Jesuit James Martin, prolific author and editor-at-large at "America" Magazine, the flagship periodical for North America. He was a frequent guest of Stephen Colbert on "The Colbert Report," and the executive producer, Rev. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., who heads the English-speaking desk in the Vatican's press office. Daily he briefs the over 900 media outlets on the Pope's day. About Francis, he said, "What you see is what you get."

The film recounts the moment Francis decided to go to confession at a penance service. "It was not in the script," said Rosica, who then had to fend off reporters who wanted to talk to the priest who heard the Pope's confession by telling them that it's a no-no for Catholics.

Everything else about Francis as he marks his second anniversary tomorrow is a resounding yes. In preparation for his first trip to the U.S. in September, ABC has struck a deal to show a 58 minute version of the film over the next several weeks on close to 250 affiliates across the country.

Francis has extended his honeymoon period longer than expected and the world waits for the 2015 second session of the Synod on the Family this coming October. And the books on Francis come hot off the presses.

One of the neat ones for children is simply, "The Pope," by Paulist Press. It's not only a breezy biography but also teaches some church lessons on titles of the pope and how the pope is elected.

But the most definitive book on Francis to date is British scholar Austen Ivereigh's, "The Great Reformer." He holds an Oxford doctorate on the church and politics in Argentina. He has thoroughly researched the early life of Jorge Bergoglio as the provincial and tour de force among the Argentinian and Chilean Jesuits during political turmoil in that part of South America.

Much has been made of Bergoglio's early rise to provincial at the tender age of 38, not quite five years after his priestly ordination. Critics tried to label him as a "conservative" because of his authoritarian style. It was much more complicated. At the time, there were two groups of Jesuits -- those who allied themselves with the power structure and taught the children of the elite, and those who lived with the poor. He steered a middle ground between them.

Once pope, accusations were made whether Bergoglio failed to save two Jesuits in particular who were taken hostage and eventually freed. Ivereigh and Nello Scavo's, "Bergoglio's List," dug deeper and discovered that Bergoglio used his neutrality and contacts to save many lives, perhaps hundreds. Scavo writes, "His courage during those nights unphased by the military raids... of sidetracking police and outmaneuvering generals; of leading young men destined for clandestine slaughterhouses safely across the border."

Most revealing for Francis' pastoral approach today is his work among the seminarians at the Colegio Maximo. He helped these young men get closer to the poor people they were destined to serve. "Only by sharing the lives of the poor could they discover the true possibilities of justice in the world," Ivereigh quoted Bergoglio.

Eventually, as more progressive Jesuits came into leadership, Bergoglio was pushed aside with the support of the Jesuit general administration in Rome. Yet, once he became pope, Francis mended fences with the Jesuit general superior today, Adolfo Nicolas.

The real Francis effect will be seen close-up when he steps on U.S. soil and addresses the two houses of Congress, the first for a Pope, but more profoundly where he will visit and stay and what he will say. We are in for more surprises by a Pope, who goes off script a lot.

Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of The Church of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, 07030, fax (201)659-5833, e-mail: