For over 28 years, Pope Francis has not watched television. He made a promise to God on July 16, 1990, and he has fulfilled it to the letter.
Why did he take that decision? In an interview published in 2015, by the Argentine newspaper “La Voz del Pueblo,” he said it was a promise he made to the Virgin of Carmen on the night of July 15, 1990.
Subsequently, interviewed by the daily “El Pais,” he elaborated on the subject. “I don’t watch television simply because I felt one moment, that God was asking this of me.”
“And that’s what I like the movies a lot and I have studied quite a bit about films, especially the Italian after the War, Italian realism, and the Pole Wajda, Kurosawa, and a few French ones.”
Despite this decision, Pope Francis said it hasn’t meant for him to be incommunicado.
“Not to watch television was a personal option, nothing more. However, communication is divine. God communicates Himself. God communicated with us through history. God didn’t remain isolated. He is a God who communicated and He spoke to us, and accompanied us, and reprimanded us, and made us change our route, and He continues to accompany us.”
In a previous interview, given to the same Argentine daily, he said that this promise also implies no longer watching games of the San Lorenzo de Almagro soccer team, of which he’s been a fanatic all his life.
“There is a Swiss Guard who every week leaves me the results and how it’s rated in the charts,” admitted the Pontiff.
