(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 26.02.2023).- Pope Francis watched two films on the last weekend of February. One was a documentary and the other on the life of a Saint, Patroness of Immigrants.
As reported in the bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father received in audience a delegation of the production of the Mother Cabrini film.
As far as is known, the Pope watched part of the film. Two private screenings were also held in two different parts of Rome: one at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, which was attended by the Director General of the Legionaries of Christ, Father John Connor, LC, and the other at the Pontifical Lateran University, which was attended by the Pro Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Monsignor Rino Fisichella. In both venues the impressions on the photographic and narrative quality of the story of the Patroness of Immigrants was very good. The film does not yet have a release date (ZENIT published an article on this film some months ago; it can be seen here).
The other film was “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” a documentary of Director Evgeny Afineevsky. The documentary is about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film was screened on Friday afternoon, February 25, in the Synod’s New Hall, with the presence of the Holy Father and 250 guests, the majority Ukrainians. At the end of the film, the Pope took to the floor and said:
When God made man, He said to him: take the earth, make it grow, make it beautiful. The spirit of war is the contrary: to destroy, to destroy, not to let it grow, to destroy everyone, men, women, children, the elderly, all. Today marks one year of this War. Let us look at Ukraine, let us pray for Ukraine , and let us open our hearts to the pain. Let us not be ashamed to suffer and cry, because war is destruction, war always diminishes us. May God make us understand this.
As can be seen on Facebook, Natalya Yemchenko, a Ukrainian woman, gave the Pontiff an “Azovsta” steel ring. The Pope wished to use that ring and join in the prayer for the liberation of prisoners of war captured in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
