Legendary director Martin Scorsese has met with Pope Francis and spoken about the ‘’painful human failing’ within the Church.
The film-maker had a meeting with the Pope while his was in Rome for the launch of the book Sharing The Wisdom Of Time, which took place at the Augustinianum Institute.
Scorsese had deep concerns and regret at the ‘painful human failings of the institution of the Church itself’.
He wanted advice from the Pope on how the older generation could guide young people through troubled times.
Scorsese said: “I experienced that there was a truth in the street and that there was a truth presented to us in the church and that they weren’t or didn’t seem to be the same and it was very, very difficult to put the two of them together, to reconcile the two worlds.
“How can we, elderly people, strengthen and guide the young in what they’ve got to go through yet in life?
“How, Holy Father, can the faith of a young woman or man survive in this maelstrom, how can we help the church in this endeavour?”
The Pope responded by saying that people wouldn’t hide their emotions.
He said: “How can we react to the cruelty, the great cruelty… and the little cruelty that we all have; how can we teach young people that cruelty is the wrong path, a path that kills not just individuals, but humanity, the sense of belonging to a community?
“Here there is a word that we must speak: the wisdom of weeping. The gift of crying.’
“Before this violence, this cruelty, this destruction of human dignity, weeping is human and Christian. Ask for the grace of tears, because crying softens the heart, it opens the heart, it is a source of inspiration. Cry.”
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling
