-The view is rather beautiful.

It's amazing.

-The view is amazing.

Yes, it's true.

In fact, when people come here, I say, "Well, you have looked out of the window, haven't you?"

And then, they sort of take their breath away that you could be so close to the facade of St. Peter's.

This is where I might read the paper, mostly read the papers and sit down here and listen to a bit of music.

Do you want me to put a bit on?

-Yes.

-Okay.

So what do...I don't remember what was in here.

[ Clicks ] [ Pop music plays ] That's ABBA, you see.

We had a bit of ABBA last night.

♪♪ -♪ Summer night city ♪ ♪ Waiting for the sunrise ♪ ♪ Soul dancing in the dark ♪ -This is the Vatican as it's never been seen before.

From the life of the highest-ranking officials... -This job doesn't give me much of a private life.

There's some, but not much.

-Amen.

-...to the men and women working every day to keep this unique city-state running.

-[ Speaks Italian ] -[ Speaks Italian ] -[ Singing in Italian ] -Just got to check I've got all the music that I actually need for this evening because that would be a disaster if I left that at home.

-Turn around.

-Oh, boy.

I'm a fashion model now.

-Perfecto.

-We've been filming inside the Vatican for over a year.

It's been a time of change.

-The Church is always in need of reform.

-Pope Francis is not a liberal.

He is not a conservative.

He's a radical.

-[ Speaks Italian ] -And the Church has faced one of its biggest challenges for a generation.

-An explosive report alleging a cover-up of Catholic priest sex abuses dating back decades... -It is like looking in a mirror where you see the face of a monster, so either you take it on, or it will take you out.

♪♪ -It's 6:00 a.m. As a new year dawns in Vatican City, the Sediari or chair bearers are arriving for work.

Until 1978, it was the Sediari's duty to carry the pope on his ceremonial throne.

♪♪ Now, their duties are very different as they prepare to welcome the public into this tiny nation-state.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] -Every Wednesday, the Sediari are on hand as the pope greets pilgrims during his weekly general audience.

♪♪ [ Bells ringing ] ♪♪ -[ Conversing in Italian ] [ People calling to the pope ] -We are soldiers from Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil, and we have an audience with the pope because pope is Argentinean, we consider him as one of us.

♪♪ ♪♪ -We are from Pisa, Tuscany, and this is our third days of honeymoon.

We just got married.

[ Chatter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Laughing ] Oh, my God.

[ Normal voice ] We met the pope!

Oh, my God!

[ Laughs ] -Pope Francis believes that the Church no longer like a fortress condemning, telling the world what to do, but a Church in dialogue, in service in the world.

He really believes bishops should be people close to the poor who are not sort of lording over others.

He is the first Latin American pope.

We shouldn't underestimate that.

There was a bottom-up movement in Latin America using theology to transform people's lives and political structures, and Pope Francis comes from that tradition.

He's not a liberal.

He's not a conservative.

He's a radical.

Pope Francis believes in practicing what he preaches, so that's why he decided to not live in the Apostolic Palace but in the Casa Santa Marta so he could be amongst people, so he could show to the world that a pope is not a prince but a pastor.

[ Bird calls ] -For centuries, popes have lived in the Apostolic Palace.

Today, it is still home to a few high-ranking Vatican officials.

-At the moment, we have a little problem with seagulls because the sisters have fed the seagulls, and now the seagulls keep coming back, so we have to shoo the seagulls of the windows, but with the end of the seagull season when all the chicks are grown up, then I think that they'll lose interest and move away.

-Originally from Liverpool, Archbishop Paul Gallagher is the Holy See's Secretary for Relations with States, effectively the pope's foreign minister.

-The Holy Father decided that it would be a good idea that the three superiors of the Secretariat of State lived in the palace together.

The only disadvantage is, it's very close to the office.

So what is original, we certainly know that the floor is original from the time of Pope Julius, and the ceiling is original because that's his coat of arms.

His name was Giuliano della Rovere.

That was his coat of arms.

I slept here for a couple of weeks when my mom came to visit a few years ago, and it's a very pleasant place to sleep, but Liverpool is still home.

Liverpool is still where I go, and probably Liverpool is the place where I'll go when nobody wants to employ me here anymore.

♪ Dun dun ♪ -I come from a modest family, what my father always described as an ordinary family, so it's the upper working-class people.

A...Oh.

Turn that on.

One of my great fears is, we're forgetting to turn the electricity off and there being a fire, being the one who burnt down.

They've kept up Julius' bedroom for 500 years.

I don't want to be the one... -Be the one to... -...be the one who burns it down.

The end of the day, a parish priest is concerned with the good of his people.

A diplomat is concerned with promoting the common good, seeking to improve relations between nations.

It's all very people-centered.

-January is a busy time for the Vatican foreign office as they prepare to welcome ambassadors from around the world.

-We talk with the ambassadors, meet with the officials.

This morning, we've had a delegation from the United States.

We had a visit from the president of the Central African Republic.

There's somebody coming from Kosovo later in the morning.

Working in an office here... [Indistinct speech].

[ Guard clicks heels ] Bonsoir.

Apart from the fact that people are dressed a bit differently, it's in many ways like working in an office anywhere.

-The Vatican is one of the world's oldest diplomatic institutions.

♪♪ -This is a side of the Basilica that nobody ever sees, the back of it.

It's just been cleaned, so it's absolutely bright white, and in the morning, it's blinding.

♪♪ The Easter Vigil which is the Saturday, it's a very big service.

In fact, it's possibly the biggest service of the year.

I sing on my own in front of the pope, in front of all the curia, in front of the choir and in front of the thousands of people in the Basilica and millions of people watching live worldwide.

When I started, I was the first ever English singer in this choir.

It's the Cappella Musicale Pontificia.

We're known as The Sistina, but it's the Papal Musical Chapel.

We're the personal choir of the pope.

We're have the Sistine Chapel as a home, but we don't sing for the Sistine Chapel.

We sing for the pope, and therefore, we are all extended members of the Papal family.

[ Chatter ] -[ Speaks Italian ] [ Chair scrapes ] [ Choir sings ] -I went to Trinity College Dublin, and I studied music there, and at that point, I realized that I wanted to pursue singing.

-[ Speaks Italian ] -And then, I was looking for work, and I came to Italy, and I investigated the opera houses.

And it was while I was in Rome that it was suggested to me that I go and meet Maestro Palombella at the Sistine Chapel.

-[ Speaks Italian ] [ Sings ] -Maestro Palombella is an extraordinary man.

He will insist on having the exact sound that he wants, and he will work until he gets it, and that can be a hard process.

-♪ Filio ♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Speaks Italian ] -Do you think that if you are Catholic, you are a better singer?

-[ Laughs ] I don't think the fact of being a Catholic singer makes you a better singer.

Obviously, you have to understand what this music is about to give it the kind of expression that it requires.

-In less than 3 months, Mark will take part in one of the most important performances of his life as he sings solo during the Easter celebrations in St. Peter's Basilica.

[ Scooter engines rev ] The Vatican is not only the headquarters of a global religion.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] It is also a self-governing city-state, a nation within a nation.

-Now, we're leaving Italy, and we are entering Vatican City State here.

There's the post office just over there.

There's a supermarket over there.

There's a pharmacy.

This is a shortcut actually because only the employees who work at the Apostolic Palace can enter here.

[ Door buzzes ] ♪♪ I guess it will be a busy day.

There's a lot to do.

A lot is happening all over the world, and so there's a lot to deal with.

I'm working in the section for the relations with states which deals with what a ministry of foreign affairs would do basically.

Buongiorno, Monsignor.

Actually, the pope is receiving right now on the second floor, or the right floor.

I work on the last floor.

It's called [foreign].

-Buongiorno.

There is something very special about working here.

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

-[ Speaks Italian ] -Bene.

-Grazie.

There is also a simplicity and a very fraternal atmosphere.

Here we are.

-Grazie.

Buona giornata.

-Buongiorno.

-Of course, you have some protocols.

You have some ways to do things, to greet people, to greet a monsignor.

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

-We have the Swiss guards who are there who greet us or the person who are coming.

There is a particular culture here which is not probably Italian I would say because this is something very international, and you have here people from all over the world.

♪♪ -Every January, the Secretariat of State invites representatives of all nations for the pope's annual State of the World Address.

-We try to stay abreast at what's happening in the world and to help the Holy Father gain an in-depth knowledge of certain situations: the Middle East, the war in Syria, Iraq, so those are the things that are sort of on our daily agenda.

[ Applause ] Our work in diplomatic activity is not a question of great successes.

It's more, very often, a drop of water going onto a stone and eroding it, and hopefully in time, there will be improvements or success.

-Outside the palace live another group of the pope's invited guests, homeless Italians and migrants catered for by the nuns of Santissima Addolorata.

-I think it's part of the Pope Francis agenda, the Pope Francis approach that if you're going to talk about a church for the poor of the poor, then you need to start where you live.

You need to live that out with credibility.

If you're going to be a pope who takes the name Saint Francis of Assisi, the great Saint of poverty, humility, and peace, better make sure that you live that with integrity.

Otherwise, you're going to be found out pretty quickly.

-Amen.

-Prego.

-Grazie -Buona sera.

-Grazie, Bonita.

-Ciao.

-Spezza, signora.

♪♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] -Grazie.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Sometimes, obviously, politics can be a cynical activity.

♪♪ We do it from a slightly different point of view in that we do believe that we're trying to do God's work as an expression of our faith and of our commitment to Christian values, not just a pursuit of national interest or promoting the economic prosperity of a country which is obviously what governments and politicians are obliged to do.

-The Catholic faith binds all those who work in the Vatican.

Everyone from the pope to the caretakers see their day-to-day duties as a vocation in the service of God.

At the heart of the faith is St. Peter's Basilica.

-The Sanpietrini are a team of skilled craftsmen who are responsible for the upkeep of this, the most important church in the Catholic world.

-These men see themselves as the heirs to the craftsmen who built St. Peter's.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ -Of all the jobs the Sanpietrini do to get St. Peter's Basilica ready for Easter, today's is the most demanding and prized.

♪♪ -They must clean the Baldacchino, the huge ornamental canopy above the altar.

♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ Mm, hallelujah-ah-ah-ah-ah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah-ah-ah-ah-ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah-ah-ah ah ♪ [ Vocalizing ] -When I first joined the choir, when Maestro Palombella asked me to sing the credo, and it starts... ♪ Credo in unun Deum ♪ -...which means, "I believe in one God," not, "We believe in one God."

"I believe in one God."

[ Vocalizes ] More people have heard me sing that than anyone else because I've been singing it at every Papal Mass for 3 years, and it's broadcasted live across the world.

[ Humming scales ] I get back home, and I think, "Everyone has heard me sing that."

Is it true?

I don't know, and sometimes, I feel like a fraud.

I've just declared the beginning of the Nicene Creed in front of the pope.

Surely, I should be sure of what I'm saying.

Sometimes I know what it means when I sing that, and sometimes I don't.

♪♪ [ Tempo quickens ] ♪♪ -The Vatican gardeners also have a key role to play in the Easter preparations.

♪♪ -Well, Easter week, of course, is particularly busy because you've got to keep the office running as normal, and the world doesn't stop because it's just Easter and we're after all dealing with relations between states, and we're dealing with politics and diplomacy, and on top of that, we have then the ceremonies of Easter week.

-The ceremonies will begin with Palm Sunday.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Okay.

-Bene.

-The Vatican police force expect 80,000 visitors to arrive for the Easter celebrations, and they've learned to prepare for the worst.

-A terrible quiet fell on the thousands who were gathered at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican today.

10,000 or more had come to receive the blessing of Pope John Paul.

Instead, amongst the cheering and the peal of bells announcing the arrival of the pope, they heard gunfire.

Pope John Paul II had been shot.

-[ Speaking Italian ] ♪♪ -Under the Vatican State, there is a network of tunnels and passageways.

[ Bell tolling ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -A 12:00 bell stops work in every office in the Vatican for the Angelus midday prayer.

-[ Speaking Italian ] -[ Speaking Italian ] -Grazie.

-Here, in the Department of Communication, the new media team perform an essential task -- conveying the pope's message to the world.

♪♪ -What I've found is that when you share a Twitter post from @Pontifex on Facebook, it actually goes quite well.

People comment on it.

They share it.

Then it's shared around quite a bit.

But whenever we share Instagram posts on Facebook, even though they're owned by the same company, they don't get as much -- They don't get out there as much.

-[ Laughs ] "Why am I following you, and I don't even believe in God?"

-For Easter Palm Sunday, our main goal is to follow the activities of the pope.

So we're going to follow obviously his main events, share our journalistic productions and articles on the different masses and liturgies.

And also videos.

♪♪ -The beauty is, we're getting the photos and the photo galleries out there much faster, and people, I mean, from what we see from the traffic, really like photos.

I like photos.

You know?

You know?

[ Indistinct conversations ] -[ Speaking Italian ] -The Palm Sunday celebration will take place in St. Peter's Square, where the Sanpietrini are hanging ceremonial tapestries in front of the Basilica.

-Oh!

[ Cellphone ringing ] -Graz.

Graz.

[ Speaks Italian ] [ Bell tolling ] ♪♪ -[ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Vacuums whirring ] -With the preparations to welcome the public almost done, life goes on in the privacy of the Apostolic Palace.

-Here you have the door of the Sistine Chapel.

You can hear people visiting the Sistine Chapel right now.

[ Indistinct conversations ] There is access to the Sistine Chapel, but they don't have access to this room nor to this other room, the Sala Ducale, nor to the Chapel La Paolina.

I like coming here to pray at the Chapel Paolina, and it's a place that witnessed so many different things.

It's a place where many different popes came to pray, too.

♪♪ Work and prayer, we need it.

We really need it.

♪♪ It's all part of the same vocation... that strives to unite action and contemplation.

♪♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] ♪♪ -Although he lives only meters from St. Peter's Basilica, Archbishop Gallagher prays mostly in his chapel at home.

♪♪ -So, it's a small modernized chapel, wonderful place to pray every morning.

Then I come back here after lunch for a midday prayer.

And normally before I get back to the office in the evening, I say Vespers here, and last thing at night, I come and say Compline in here.

♪♪ Every day, I do the same thing that I have been doing for the last 45, even 50 years -- mass, prayer, silence.

♪♪ Ultimately, you have to be anchored in that.

♪♪ -It's like a breeze for us.

It's like a breeze for the soul.

So that's why prayer life is indispensable for us.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Conversing in Italian ] -I feel that the church is most present when there are just a small group of very ordinary Catholics celebrating a mass.

To me, that is as much the church as Easter Sunday, the Urbi et Orbi in St. Peter's Square.

♪♪ -Prayer life, action, work go all together.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Bells tolling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Speaking indistinctly ] ♪♪ -Morning.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

So, welcome to the first service outside that we do in the Vatican.

It's a massive service.

It will be thousands of people in the piazza.

It'll be absolutely freezing cold, but it's not too bad a day today.

In the past, it's been pouring with rain and winding and everyone selling umbrellas, but, actually, today is a beautiful day, so it should be absolutely glorious outside, yes.

Enjoy.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ -After finishing touches by the gardeners, the square is ready.

♪♪ -Behind the scenes, in a room above the Basilica, the group of people are preparing for a crucial job.

-Palm Sunday is a particularly high point in the church's liturgical life because it's the opening to the most holy week in all of the Christian year.

So when I come into the booth, I have all of that going on in my mind.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -These are the interpreters who will simultaneously translate Pope Francis' Palm Sunday address to millions of Catholics throughout the world.

-[ Speaking foreign language ] -Our work as interpreters, I like to compare it to a musician.

I'm interpreting someone else's music.

Interpreting Pope Francis is, at times, difficult because Italian is his second language, so I have found that I've had to stop myself short at times because he's mistaken one word in Italian for another, just as I do at times, although all of us who have Italian as a second language understand that.

However, he speaks Italian slowly.

He's a very -- The only way I can put it -- he's very hands-on, and so he's speaking directly to people, heart-to-heart, and so his cadence is a bit slower.

And at those moments, we're getting to know the person behind the office.

[ Indistinct conversations ] [ Bells tolling ] [ Choir singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -There's always a focus from the media when it comes to Easter.

It's a time when the Vatican is on public display.

♪♪ And the papacy is all about symbols, and it's about decoding those symbols.

So it's an important moment to watch carefully in terms of what the pope is saying, what he's doing, and you have to try and get a sense of the entirety of this show, as it were.

♪♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] -"Almighty, everliving God, sanctify these branches with your blessing that we who follow Christ the King in exaltation may reach the eternal Jerusalem through Him."

-[ Speaking Italian ] -Amen.

-"And here we see the vestments which were given to our Holy Father by Pakistani refugees.

This man was the Son of God.

...presider's chair, and we will continue with the liturgy of Palm Sunday, the passion of our Lord."

♪♪ -These images and others like them are broadcast to 1.3 billion Catholics around the world where Pope Francis takes center stage in the Catholic world's biggest theater of faith.

♪♪ [ Laughter ] [ Applause ] ♪♪ -As the ceremony comes to an end, Pope Francis meets the pilgrims in St. Peter's Square.

[ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -After the festivities of Palm Sunday, the early part of the Easter week is given over to quiet contemplation inside the Vatican.

[ Whirring ] -The early hours of the 2nd of October, 1971, are amongst the most important moments of my life.

I decided to be a priest.

The diocese accepted me, and they sent me to Rome, which was a bit of a surprise.

A different world, a different culture, language, traditions, and whatever happened to me after that, my life would never be the same again, and I knew that.

That's when your Christian faith begins to mature.

It becomes less of an idea but something that is a lived reality in your life with which you have to also struggle.

Loneliness is -- Obviously, there are moments when -- as we all have -- when it would be nice to have somebody to talk to about something and that that the person is not on tap at that moment, but I think that happens to everybody.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] -The pope is coming to Regina Coeli Prison to wash the feet of inmates, a very personal Easter ritual.

He's accompanied by Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

[ Conversing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Bird calling ] -[ Speaking Italian ] -Mark has his final rehearsal before singing solo for Pope Francis and millions of people around the world.

-Okay.

-[ Speaking Italian ] ♪♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] -[ Singing in Italian ] [ Laughter ] -If you ask me if I believe in God, my reply is, I don't understand the question.

What do you mean by God?

-The way the Catholic Church is... -I mean, these are massive questions.

I'm a baritone.

What do I know?

Well, what do I know?

Well, I'll tell you what I know.

I know that when I am immersed in this music, I feel in touch with something.

[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ [ Car horn blares ] ♪♪ [ Horn beeps ] ♪♪ ♪♪ After all the darkness of the Easter week and the suffering of Christ, Saturday is the big Easter vigil, and actually Saturday night is more important than Sunday morning.

♪♪ It starts in total darkness, and then one candle is lit.

♪♪ From that candle, another candle is lit.

♪♪ And then the candles are lit all the way through the Basilica.

♪♪ And then suddenly... -♪ Lumen Christi ♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] -There is this massive outpouring of noise and light, and that is the moment that marks the resurrection, and Jesus has risen.

♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] I'm inside the Vatican, and I'm singing for the pope, and I'm singing some of the most beautiful music.

And at those points, I glimpse something of the transcendent.

[ Singing in Italian ] -Beyond major public holidays of the faith, the Vatican builds its year around internal gatherings and events that shape the direction of the Catholic Church.

Today, cardinals, bishops, and priests are gathering in the Sala Clementina for a meeting of the Curia Romana.

[ Indistinct conversations ] This is the central governing body of the Catholic Church.

♪♪ Its members are waiting for Pope Francis to give his annual address.

♪♪ [ Applause ] [ Feedback whines ] -Pope Francis has a reputation as a reformist, and he's shaking up the clerical establishment.

He's challenging traditional attitudes to divorce and homosexuality, but some of those in this room are resistant to his new approach.

-There's always institutional resistance to change.

It comes at a price, and the price sometimes can be moving out of your comfort zone, do things that you prefer not to do or to do things in a way that you're not to do, learn new skills.

Well, you know, some of us, you know, don't like to do that or maybe don't want to do it.

Just, you know, "Leave me alone," or, "Do that when I've retired."

[ Indistinct conversations ] I think the majority of people see that what he is trying to do is important and valued for the future of the church.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Cheers and applause ] -Pope Francis is always looking ahead.

Every Wednesday, he addresses the crowd in St. Peter's Square.

Today, he has a surprise.

♪♪ For Pope Francis, appointing new cardinals at the consistory is a chance to influence the choice of who will succeed him.

The College of Cardinals will elect the new pope at the next conclave.

[ Pope Francis speaking Italian ] -One of the big changes that Pope Francis has brought in is his selection of cardinals.

In the past, he used to -- There was a way of choosing cardinals.

A certain position in the church meant you were a cardinal.

Francis has completely upended that, so he's chosen cardinals from Tunga, Madagascar, Iraq, and showing that the church is out in the world, away from the centers of power.

[ Pope Francis speaking Italian ] -Christopher Lamb is a journalist who has been following the pope's every move for the last five years.

[ Pope Francis speaking Italian ] -"Buon pranzo."

"Have a good lunch."

That's what he always says.

"Buon pranzo."

And the first moment he came out onto the balcony, he started with "buona sera" after he was elected, and that set the tone for the style of pope that he has been -- almost like someone who you can talk to, you can confess to like your parish priest.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -But not everyone is as impressed by this new informality.

♪♪ Sandro Magister is an influential journalist who has been reporting on the Catholic Church for over 50 years.

♪♪ -Pope Francis is very demanding and expects the best from the ones who work in the Vatican.

He expects the best of every Catholic.

♪♪ -Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -2,600 people work inside the Vatican.

They have had to adapt to this pope's individual management style.

♪♪ -The Virgin of Silence tells about the importance of silence, actually, rather than gossiping, and indeed, Pope Francis wanted to have this icon here to send a message to everyone.

It's the place where everyone passes by before going to work.

So Pope Francis sends very clear messages, and he likes to use images, also, to send messages, strong messages.

"Stop gossiping in the Vatican."

♪♪ [ Bells tolling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Speaks Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Pope Francis' influence is felt even here.

-[ Laughs ] -Pakistan.

-[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -I'm going to Mancinelli, the tailor, to pick up all my red stuff -- the red zucchetto, the biretta, the talare.

One has to be completely red, and I'm told it's not just red.

It's scarlet.

-Why red?

-Well, I guess it's tradition.

The cardinals wearing red.

The bishops in purple.

The pope is always in white.

I've been given a complete list of what I need.

Even the socks will be red.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Buona sera.

-[ Speaking Italian ] [ Chuckles ] -That's frightening.

I was first a pastor in Lahore, the second-largest city of Pakistan, and I was sitting in my office, and then the parish priest comes up with his mobile telephone in his hand.

He said, "Bishop, Bishop!

Congratulations!"

I said, "What's gone wrong?"

And he says, "You've been made cardinal."

I said, "Now, come on.

Stop joking.

Don't you have anything else to do?"

[ Chuckles ] I wanted to be an engineer, and, gradually, I became more convinced that...

Even my elder brother sort of looked surprised.

He said, "What?

You're going to be a priest?"

As if to say, "Couldn't you find something better to do?"

You know, that kind of thing.

-Good.

-Good?

My mother was very happy.

I know that.

Oh, boy.

I'm a fashion model now.

[ Laughter ] My dad just said to me, "You better look sharp now."

I'm not chosen cardinal because I was the most capable person, but it's also the choice of the country.

There were always certain important places or big cities of the world that say, "Oh, there must be a cardinal from there."

But I think what Pope Francis is saying is, there are these smaller churches.

They need to have also a proper representation in the church.

[ Laughter ] [ Camera shutter clicks ] ♪♪ [ Speaking Italian ] -[ Laughs ] Bene.

-No, no, no.

-"No!"

[ Laughs ] [ Laughter ] -Mamma mia.

[ Laughter ] You see there a lot of changes taking place inside the Catholic Church.

We are still very -- keep to a lot of ceremonies and traditions from the past like this red hat, but these are not things we wear and walk around with, so we take them for what they are.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Don Luigi is a priest.

He has been living inside the Vatican since he first arrived as a 12-year-old altar boy.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Buongiorno.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaks Italian ] -Every morning, Don Luigi says mass in one of the nine chapels beneath St. Peter's Basilica.

-[ Speaking Italian ] ♪♪ -Built nearly 1,500 years ago, the Clementina Chapel is one of Christianity's most sacred places.

-♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] -[ Speaking Italian ] -Buona sera.

-Okay.

[ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ -The Vatican has its own soccer league, fielding teams from different departments such as the Swiss Guards and the Gendarmerie.

Don Luigi is playing for the telecoms department against the administration office.

♪♪ [ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ [ Whistle blows ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -[ Shouting in Italian ] [ Whistle blowing ] ♪♪ -[ Chuckles ] -[ Chuckles ] [ Conversing in Italian ] [ Bell tolling ] -As the day of the consistory for new cardinals draws near, more of the pope's appointees are coming to Rome.

[ Applause ] [ All singing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ All speaking native language ] -Amen.

♪♪ -Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

-You speak English, Father?

-Italiano.

-We speak Italiano.

We speak Italiano.

-Okay.

♪♪ [ Chuckles ] ♪♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] -Amen.

[ Dog barking ] -In the Abbey of Trisulti outside Rome, a new organization has been set up to defend the traditional values of the Catholic Church.

-So do you live here?

-Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-360 days a year.

-365 days and nights a year.

♪♪ -Benjamin Harnwell, originally from the city of Leicester in the UK, runs a conservative think tank to challenge some of the pope's innovations.

-One of the concerns is that the pope isn't defending the integrity of the faith that has been held for 2,000 years, but he's using his authority, as pope, to introduce novelties which have never been held or believed before in the history of the Church and to impose those novelties on to the faithful.

This is my study here.

Great.

[ Cat meows ] Hey.

Nobody's against openness.

The point is that the Church, in any age but especially the present age of the 21st century, has to get out there, into the public square, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ -- has to do that.

Jesus Christ, in his great commission, didn't tell anybody to go out and hold conferences on global warming.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Pope Francis is outspoken about climate change.

♪♪ The pope is leading by example.

He has set up a recycling center inside the Vatican.

♪♪ Rafael Tornini is the man in charge of the recycling scheme.

♪♪ -Buongiorno... -They have a way to go.

Today, 49% of the Vatican waste is recycled.

They're aiming for 80% by 2025.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Well, the cardinals who are going to be made to... made cardinal by Pope Francis are coming to the press office of the Vatican to talk to journalists, to introduce themselves to the world because a lot of the cardinals who Pope Francis makes are obscure figures who no one knows.

♪♪ -Christopher Lamb is about to attend a press conference with a cardinal-to-be, Louis Sako from Iraq.

[ Laughter ] -Welcome.

-Thank you.

-Can you tell us, Cardinal, what the role of Christians is... what the situation for Christians is like at the moment in Iraq?

-Well, you know, we all are Iraqi citizens.

So it doesn't matter.

I am Christian, or you are Muslim.

I believe or I not.

I am free.

Nobody can, you know... -What Francis has done is taken away the rule book when it comes to appointing cardinals... -The pope is thinking about... -...appointing men who aren't the power brokers, the power players in the clerical machinery.

-He's so close to them.

-And it's as if Pope Francis is saying that is where the center of the church should be, in these places that are often forgotten.

So the periphery has become the central part.

[ Man singing in Aramaic ] ♪♪ [ Choir singing in Aramaic ] ♪♪ -Iraqi pilgrims from all over the world have come to St. Peter's Basilica for a very special event.

They are celebrating the nomination of Cardinal Sako with a mass in ancient Aramaic.

-I was born in Iraq.

And there was a conflict in our village between Christians and Muslims.

We were obliged to leave the village, and when I finished my studies, I came to Rome, and we met with the pope, and he said to me, "What are you going to do?"

"Maybe I will be a soldier."

He said, "No, you will be not a soldier.

You should go to the seminary to be a priest."

[ Congregation singing in Aramaic ] ♪♪ My father had a very nice voice.

He was always singing the mass with the bishop.

-Can you remember any song?

-Maybe I will sing something in Arabic or in Chaldean.

-Yes, yes.

-[ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Vacuum whirring ] ♪♪ -The day of the consistory for new cardinals has arrived.

♪♪ In less than one hour, Pope Francis will officially appoint the new cardinals.

♪♪ -Over the centuries, cardinals were considered princes of the church.

I remember, at the last consistory two years ago, when the new cardinals were made, Pope Francis was very clear.

He said, "You are not being made princes of the church.

You are pastors."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -It's quite a simple ceremony.

Each of the cardinal arrive wearing their red, and they go up to the pope and are given a red biretta hat.

♪♪ -I didn't expect this coming at this age when I thought, "Oh, boy, I better start thinking about my retirement."

-[ Speaking Italian ] -And they're given a scroll, which is an oath of their loyalty to the office of Saint Peter to symbolize their role.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ And then afterwards, we have what's called the courtesy visit whereby anyone, any member of the public, can go and say hello to the new cardinals.

[ Indistinct conversation ] -[ Singing in native language ] -Europe, for centuries, controlled the College of Cardinals and the election of the pope.

Now the College of Cardinals -- the cardinals are outside Europe and in the global south and Africa and Asia.

That's a huge shift, and I think that shows that the church is changing.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Being a cardinal doesn't just mean to be the prince of the church, but to be out in the front line, being ready to give your life, even to the point of martyrdom.

♪♪ -Some people say the next conclave is going to be an almighty battle.

You've got those chosen by this pope with his particular vision of reform and ones by John Paul II and Benedict, who perhaps might have seen things differently.

And that's what the pope wants.

The pope is always talking about the god of surprises.

He doesn't want things to follow a nice, steady, sure path, and a lot of people in the church aren't happy about that.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -At the end of the month, Pope Francis is going to Ireland.

It will the first papal visit for 40 years.

♪♪ But two weeks before the pope's trip, a long-simmering scandal suddenly erupted.

-An explosive report alleging a cover-up of Catholic priest sex abuses dating back decades.

A grand jury in Pennsylvania just issued its report.

It found evidence of more than 300 predator priests all accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims.

♪♪ -What you had was a perfect storm of events.

You had Pennsylvania, and then he went into Ireland within that context, so the whole thing kind of exploded over that August weekend.

♪♪ -Pope Francis will be flying into the eye of another storm because Ireland sits right at the center of the child-sex-abuse scandals that have rocked the church worldwide.

-Ireland is the ground zero of the clerical sexual-abuse crisis in the Catholic church.

They have been dealing with this since the late 1990s.

♪♪ It's not only the thousands of victims of sexual abuse within the church, but it's the cover-ups by church leaders and by bishops not only in Ireland but across the world.

-There have been thousands of victims worldwide.

Each year, the Vatican processes hundreds of cases of priests accused of abuse.

-I think it was the toughest trip of his papacy.

He wanted to go to Ireland because there was a meeting of families, but it turned into a very difficult trip because the whole narrative was about clerical sexual-abuse scandals.

It would be wrong if the pope went to Ireland and just didn't mention the elephant in the room.

I mean, this is a huge crisis.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ] -That's a big shift in the papacy.

The pope has said, "Yes, we can make mistakes, and we're sorry, and we're going to try and sort this issue out."

And, of course, some people, they say that's not good enough.

♪♪ -I have met the Holy Father Pope Francis five or six times now.

He has brought up the issue a lot and put it on the agenda of the whole world.

-Father Hans Zollner is not just a priest in Rome but also a psychologist and one of the leading experts on sexual abuse working in the Catholic Church.

♪♪ In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him to the Commission for the Protection of Minors.

[ Conversing in Italian ] [ Window slides ] -There have been committed cover-ups that I could not imagine possibly to happen if you are honest, if you are serious about your Christian Catholic religious life.

This goes against my ideals, our ideals.

This is going to stay with us for a very long time.

We need to face it.

If you don't face it actively, it will come back to us in one way or another, so either you take it on, or it will take you on.

I trained as a psychologist and psychotherapist in the mid-'90s.

♪♪ We were certainly among the very few psychology students in any kind of university worldwide that learned something specific about sexual violence and what is called sexual deviances like sadism or masochism or voyeurism or pedophilia.

Society needs to reach a certain level of willingness and preparedness to take this on because it is looking like in a mirror where you see the face of a monster, and nobody wants to really face that easily and is uncomfortable with it, of course.

[ Congregation singing in Italian ] ♪♪ -There is the sense of, within the church, a priest can do whatever he wants to do without being responsible for it, so... "Because I am a priest, I can take whatever I wish, and be it sexual encounter with a young person."

♪♪ So let us pause for a moment.

Of course this is a huge crisis in terms of lack of trust, lack of confidence because who else is supposed to live what he preaches if not a priest?

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil.

By the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress.

The anger, justified, or about the cover-up is the expression of a deep disappointment because the standard whilst seen and has been presented like this high, and what has been done whilst that low.

Peace of the Lord be always with you.

-[ Speaking indistinctly ] -Let us offer each other a sign of peace.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Every week, Don Luigi leaves the Vatican and travels to a parish on the outskirts of Rome.

♪♪ [ Clicking ] -[ Speaking Italian ] [ Congregation singing ] ♪♪ -[ Speaking Italian ] -Don Luigi's hopes for the Catholic Church lie with these young people.

But the future is uncertain.

Across Europe and North America, church attendance is falling sharply.

-[ Speaking Italian ] -It's a challenge for reformers and conservatives alike.

♪♪ -At the moment, we're closing churches, and this is a situation we're seeing right across the Western world.

♪♪ My dad gave me these mugs.

That's the city.

♪♪ These problems in the church are here because of a lack of faith right across the church, right across the laity, the bishops, priests.

♪♪ If we don't hold the Catholic faith, we're not going to attract anyone towards it, and we're not going to attract anyone into it in terms of vocations, right?

That is the crisis that the Catholic Church has, and I would like to see attention dedicated on that crisis.

♪♪ -...where we have some water.

Things have changed, and they've changed very radically.

♪♪ In South Liverpool, where I came from, the church which I went to now sadly is no longer an active church.

They've sort of decommissioned it, and when I drive past it when I go home, it's really sad to think, "There's the church where I grew up, where I went to church with my family, the church where I celebrated my first mass as a priest."

And it's no longer being used as a place of worship.

That's hard to cope with.

One would always like a certain permanence in one's life, but it is certainly an indication that things have changed.

And the question remains, have they really changed for the better?

♪♪ -There is something waiting for us.

We don't know now how it will look like.

We don't have the answers now.

But, of course, there will be a Catholic Church with a different face.

♪♪ -At the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Father Hans Zollner and his colleagues have set up postgraduate training courses in child protection.

They want to make sure that the clerical sex-abuse scandal will not be repeated in future generations.

-This is the first university that offers an academic degree in the area of safeguarding.

-Morning.

-Buongiorno.

-We need specialists that are really capable of not only executing guidelines, putting them into place, but also developing them, elaborating them, updating them in dialogue with science, with police, with the law system in the country.

-[ Speaking Italian ] -So we need people who are more knowledgeable, more competent, and more prepared to do whatever can be done so that young people are safe.

-Good morning, everybody.

-Good morning, Sister.

-In your groups, we've tackled several issues with regard to sexual online exploitation in greater depth.

Today, as we've said, you're going to present the results to your peers, to all of us.

-The Catholic Church is a much more complex reality than people perceive.

How can we come up with a much more consistent picture and reality of who is responsible for what and who is accountable for what?

We don't have that.

-So girls are more often asked for sexually explicit pictures.

You know, "Send me one taking your bra off," or whatever.

They are more often contacted with the desire to get pictures.

-This is an area which not many people speak easily.

-Are there any questions?

-It's coming up now, but still there is an unconfidence and a lack of willingness to really take it on as a society and as a church.

-They feel that excitement and curiosity and self-exploration.

One thing attracting them is the digital world, the media.

-There is much need for preparing a different generation of people through education information.

-[ Speaking indistinctly ] -This is not an immediate solution for anything, but it is the start for a better future.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] -It's the week before Christmas.

Once again, the Curia Romana is about to gather inside the Vatican to hear from Pope Francis.

[ Applause ] [ Pope Francis speaks Italian ] ♪♪ -The pope has been quite tough on them.

He is the pope.

[ Chuckles ] He is their boss.

When he says something, he expects people to do it.

-It was a tough speech.

It was very challenging.

It was very... Um, although it was very hard and uncompromising on things that are wrong in the church, at the same time, it was very much, I thought, a profoundly Christian message.

-This is opportunity.

This is time for grace.

He was trying to pick people up.

He's trying to raise the church up and say, "Look, we can do this together."

[ Applause ] -It was classic Pope Francis, but it was a hopeful and encouraging message in the end.

[ Bells tolling ] -Pope Francis is trying to model the church as he sees it, and some people say, "Well, the answer is to be very traditionalist, to project the old style of the church."

The pope completely rejects that idea.

It's got to be a church that's relevant to people, that engages with people, that is credible, that is a credible representation of the Gospel.

♪♪ I always say that I'm a journalist first and a Catholic second.

In terms of my personal faith, I have found it very difficult at times when you are covering the sexual-abuse crisis, when you're reading a failure to handle cases properly by bishops, and it's extremely difficult, and you sometimes think, "Well, is the whole enterprise in some kind of fundamental disarray?

What is going on here?"

You do feel those.

You have those moments, I think, of desolation.

However, I think when you see Pope Francis' or the church's work on the ground, when you see that firsthand, when you see St. Peter's Square filled with people from every culture and background for an event, when you see a world leader in the form of Pope Francis trying to bring a message of hope to terrible situations, then, yeah, that is inspiring, and then you think, "Well actually, there is something the church has."

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -Please don't give up.

♪♪ We need to continue the journey.

[ Cheers and applause ] Even if you know that it will be demanding, unnerving, embarrassing.

♪♪ But there is no way.

What else can we do?

Give up?

No.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪