Inside the Vatican - Episode 1.

the view is rather beautiful the view the viewer is amazing yes it's true it's it's of in fact uh when people come here i said well you have looked out of the window have you and uh and they uh then they they sort of take their breath away that you could be so close to the facades and peters this is where i might read the paper lucy read the papers and sit down here and listen to to a bit of music do you want me to put put put a bit on yes okay see what i don't remember what was in here [Music] that's that's abba you see we had a bit of abba last night [Music] this is the vatican as it's never been seen before from the lives of the highest ranking officials to the men and women working every day to keep this unique city-state running [Music] comedian i'm just going 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 for over a year we've been filming the inner workings of the vatican [Music] oh boy i'm a fashion model in its attempt to reform the catholic church has faced some of its biggest challenges for a generation the church is always in need of reform when you do that it's also involves implicitly or explicitly criticism in this episode the vatican prepares to stage the most sacred moment of the year for the world's 1.3 billion catholics easter [Music] it's 6 a.m as a new year dawns in vatican city the segyari or chair-bearers are arriving for work until 1978 it was the seidari'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 malatia [Music] every wednesday the sediari are on hand as the pope greets pilgrims during his weekly general audience [Music] [Applause] we are soldiers from argentina paraguay chile and brazil and we have an audience with the pope because pope is argentinian and we consider him as one of us [Music] we are from prison tuscany and this is our third days of honeymoon we just got married [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my god you made the pog oh my god [Laughter] [Music] pope francis believes in the church no longer like a condemning fortress telling the world what to do but a church in dialogue in service the world he really believes bishops should be people close to the poor who are not sort of lording it over others he is the first latin american pope we shouldn't 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 case of santa marta so he could be amongst people so he could show to the world that pope is not a prince but a pastor for centuries popes have lived in the apostolic palace today it's 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 off off the windows 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 secretary of state lived in the palace uh together the only disadvantage is it's very close to the office so the the what is original the the we certainly know that the floor is original from the time of pope julius and the the ceiling is original because that's his coat of arms his name was juliano de la rovere that was his coat of arms i slept here for a couple of weeks when my mum came to visit a few years ago and it's a very pleasant place to sleep but liverpool's still home liverpool is still where i go and probably liverpool is the place where i'll go when nobody nobody wants to employ me here anymore i come from a modest family and what my father always described as an ordinary family should i say upper working-class people a uh oh i've done that wrong one of my great fears is is the that we're forgetting to turn the electricity off and there being a fire be the the one who burnt down they've kept hope julius's bedroom for 500 years i don't want to be either 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 uh to improve relations between nations so 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 [Music] we talk to the ambassadors meet with the officials this morning we've had a delegation of the united states we had a visit from the president of the central african republic to somebody coming from kosovo later in the morning working in an office here apart from the fact that people are dressed a bit differently is in many ways like working in office anywhere the vatican is one of the world's oldest diplomatic institutions we're going to the entrance to the secretariat of state along the third lodger which is these famous and beautiful maps of the known world as it was in the beginning of the 17th century and here down in the corner are the british isles in all their glory whenever we have i have english visitors coming from home you take them over and they're always amazed i think small places derby hull york lots and lots of amazing places and somebody told me recently that in this corner here this sort of swansea appears twice for some reason somebody made a mistake [Music] this is a side of the basilica that nobody ever sees at the back of it it's just been cleaned so it's absolutely bright white and in the morning it's blinding [Music] the easter vigil which is the 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 in front of the thousands of people in the basilica and millions of people watching live worldwide [Music] 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 the sistine chapel is our 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 [Music] is [Music] i went to trinity college dublin and i studied music there and at that point i realized that i wanted to pursue singing [Applause] [Music] 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 uh that it was suggested to me that i go and meet maestro palumbella and the sistine chapel [Music] 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 [Music] do you think that if you are catholic you are a better singer 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 to give it the kind of expression that it requires in less than three months mark will take part in one of the most important performances of his life he sings solo during the easter celebrations in saint peter's basilica [Music] the vatican is not only the headquarters of a global religion it's also a self-governing city-state a nation within a nation now we're leaving italy and we are entering vatican city states here [Music] there's the post office just over there there's a supermarket over there there's a pharmacy [Music] this is a shortcut actually because only the employees who work at the pacific palace can enter here [Music] every day 2 600 people come to work inside the vatican 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 [Music] i'm working in the section for the relations with states which deals with what a minister of foreign affairs would do basically actually the pub is receiving right now on the second floor or the right floor i work on the last floor it's called there is something very special about working here [Music] ready there is also a simplicity and a very fraternal atmosphere of course you have some protocols you have some ways to do things to greet people to greet them on seniors you have the swiss guards who are there who greet also 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 of what's happening in the world and to help the holy father gain an in-depth knowledge of certain situations middle east the war in syria iraq so those are the things that are sort of on our daily agenda our work in diplomatic activity is not a question of great successes it's more very often a drop of water going on to 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 adolurata participated i think it's part of the pope francis agenda and the pope francis approach that if you're going to talk about a church for the poor of the poor the need to start where you live you need to 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 you better make sure that you live that with integrity otherwise you're going to be found out pretty quickly oh [Applause] a [Music] gracie [Applause] [Music] sometimes obviously politics can be a cynical activity we do it from a slightly different point of view and that we 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 that faith is peter's basilica are a team of skilled craftsmen who are responsible for the upkeep of this the most important church in the catholic world is these men see themselves as the heirs to the craftsmen who built saint peter's the foreign [Music] unedited of all the jobs the sampatrini do to get some peter's basilica ready for easter [Music] today's is the most demanding and prized [Music] a [Applause] [Music] they must clean the bald aquino the huge ornamental canopy above the altar [Music] permeability queen [Music] foreign [Music] um when i first joined the choir maestro palumbella asked me to sing the cradle and it starts which means i believe in one god not we believe in one god i believe in one god more people have heard me sing that than anyone else because i've been singing it at every papal mass for three years and it's broadcast live across the world but i get back home and i think everyone has heard me sing that is it true i don't know and and sometimes i feel like a fraud um i've just 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 [Music] [Music] the vatican gardeners also have a key role to play in the easter preparations [Music] [Music] difficulty [Music] so well easter week of course is particularly busy because you've got to keep 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 the ceremonies of easter week the ceremonies will begin with palm sunday [Music] is 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 saint peter's square at the vatican today ten thousand or more had come to receive the blessing of pope john paul instead amongst the cheering and the peel of bells announcing the arrival of the pope they heard gunfire pope john paul ii had been shot [Applause] under the vatican state there is a network of tunnels and passageways [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] francesco a 12 o'clock bell stops work in every office in the vatican for the angelus midday prayer here in the department of communication the new media team perform an essential task conveying the pope's message to the world [Music] what i've found is that when you share a twitter post from um at pontifex on facebook it actually goes quite well people comment on it they share it and 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 social media positive why am i following you i'm i don't even believe in god for easter palm sunday and our main goal is to follow the activities of the pope so we're going to follow obviously his his main events share our journalistic productions and articles on on the different masses and liturgies and also videos [Music] 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 [Music] the palm sunday celebration will take place in saint peter's square where the sampatrini are hanging ceremonial tapestries in front of the basilica oh [Music] foreign that's cool [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] 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 system chapel you can hear people visiting this in chapter right now tourists have access to the assistant chapel but they don't have access to this room nor to this uh other room the salad nor to the the chapel i like coming here to pray at the chapel paulina and it's a place that witnessed so many different things it's a place where many different pops came to pray too [Music] work and prayer we need it we really need it it's all part of the same vocation that strive to unite action and contemplation [Music] although he lives only meters from peter's basilica archbishop gallagher prays mostly in his chapel at home [Music] so it's it's it's a small modernized chapel being in this chapel means that i every day 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 [Music] it's like a brief force it's like a breathe for the soul so that's why prayer life is indispensable for us i feel that the church is most present when they're just a small group of very ordinary catholics celebrating a mass to me that is as much the church as easter sunday the urban orbi in saint peter's square [Music] pray life action work go all together [Music] and i wanted [Music] foreign [Music] is foreign [Music] [Music] good morning good morning good morning so welcome to the first service outside that we do in uh in the vatican it's a massive service um it'll be thousands of people in the piazza it'll be absolutely freezing cold but it's it's not too bad a day today um in the past it's been pouring with rain and winding and everyone's selling umbrellas but actually today's a beautiful day so it should be absolutely glorious outside yes [Music] after finishing touches by the gardeners the square is ready [Music] behind the scenes in a room above the basilica a 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 these are the interpreters who will simultaneously translate pope francis's palm sunday address to millions of catholics throughout the world 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 a 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 he's a very i i the only way i can put it he's very hands-on and so he's he's speaking directly to people heart to heart and so that his cadence is a bit slower and at those moments we're getting to know the person behind the the office [Music] oh [Music] there's always a focus from the media when it comes to easter it's a time when the vatican is on public display [Music] the papacy is all about symbols and it's about decoding those symbols so it's it's an important moment to to watch carefully in terms of what the pope he's saying what he's doing and you have to try and give a sense of the entirety of this of this show as it were [Music] just almighty ever-living god sanctify these branches with your blessing that we who follow [Music] and here we see the vestments which we're giving to our holy father by pakistani refugees this man was the son of god in the president and we will continue with the liturgy of palm sunday the passion of our lord [Music] 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 foreign as the ceremony comes to an end pope francis meets the pilgrims in saint peter's square [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] d [Music] after the festivities of palm sunday the early part of the easter week is given over to quiet contemplation inside the vatican 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 accept 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 have been that would never be the same again and i knew that that's when your christian faith begins to mature it becomes less of a an idea but something that is a lived reality in your life with which you have to also struggle loneliness is uh obviously there are moments when uh as we all have when it would be nice to have somebody to talk to about something and that the person is not on tap at that moment but i think that happens to everybody the pope is coming to regina chele prison to wash the feet of inmates a very personal easter ritual he's accompanied by archbishop angelo bacchus antithesis [Music] [Music] [Music] she a [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] that [Music] ah foreign mark has his final rehearsal before singing solo for pope francis and millions of people around the world [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] foreign 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 i what do i know when i tell you what i know i know that when i when i am immersed in this music i feel in touch with something we see countries started or contrasting [Music] after all the the darkness of the 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 creased [Music] there is this massive outpouring of noise and light and that is the moment that marks the resurrection and jesus has risen [Music] [Music] 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 transcendental [Music] [Music] it is we [Music] an explosive report alleging a cover-up of catholic priest sex abuses dating back decades a grand jury in pennsylvania [Music] and it's very clear to be a cardinal but to be out in the front line being ready to give your life [Music] and you can see that next friday same time at nine o'clock filmmaker comer riley meets people across scotland who passionately believe that the earth is flat that's on bbc iplayer and time for a quick experiment are left-handed or right-handed people a bit quicker we'll find out new qi follows next

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Id: 2gAYARJ5gLo

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021