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Footage of Pope Francis being given a bottle of whisky and referring to it as ‘the real water of life’, has been censored from a new documentary film about the Scots College in Rome.
Director Tony Kearney of Solus Productions followed the Scots College seminarians over 18 months in 2018 and 2019.
“We filmed the students meeting with the Pope in the Apostolic Palace,” Kearney says.
“One of them was tasked with giving the Pope a bottle of malt, because they know he likes whisky.
“He was really down to earth with them all and when they handed him the bottle, instead of just handing it to his assistant as he normally would with a gift, he held it up and said ‘Questa e la vera acqua santa’, which means ‘This is the real holy water.’
“He guffawed with laughter and it was a real ice-breaker with the students and put everyone at ease.”
Concerned the remark could caused offence, the Vatican asked for it to be removed from the one-hour documentary.
Kearney says the agreement they’d made before filming the documentary was that the Vatican’s media office would be allowed to approve all of the footage before it was broadcast.
Anything the Vatican disapproved of would have to be removed.
“We were really annoyed at first [that we had to remove that piece of footage], but they insisted they didn’t want the Pope to be seen to be endorsing whisky. I think it’s quite funny how guarded his image is,” Kearney says.
“Francis is ripping up the rule book, he’s ahead of the curve, and the flunkies around about him need to catch up.
“We’ve managed to get rare access into an ancient Scottish institution and what it’s like to train as a priest – we’ve never seen it before.
“These are down to earth, ordinary blokes who like a drink, like the football and live ordinary lives. It smashes the mystery.”
Source
- Daily Record
- LAB Bible
- Image: Daily Mail
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