The recent screening of the film “Teilhard: Visionary Scientist” at the Vatican’s Filmoteca, then at the Jesuit Curia and Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, drew much applause and appreciation. The American filmmakers, Frank and Mary Frost, spoke to Vatican News about the film.
Frank and Mary Frost’s two-hour film, “Teilhard: Visionary Scientist,” is about the life, scientific thought, and spiritual vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit priest who lived from 1881 to 1955. The film is a compelling human story filled with drama, centred on this priest-palaeontologist and visionary thinker. It focuses on his lifelong struggle to reconcile evolutionary science with Catholic faith and theology. Teilhard was telling that we must engage the world as a way to Christ, to a spirituality.
Frank and Mary Frost have said: It has been an adventure. It has been an honour. It’s been exciting. We tried to make Teilhard understandable to the world. And so, this allows us to have a very wide exposure, and nothing is higher in our estimation than being accepted in Rome by the Vatican, the Jesuits, and the Gregorian University.
It is not intended for a Catholic or religious audience. It was designed to be seen by the general public, people who are, in some way, searching for spirituality, for something spiritual in their lives. Teilhard was a man who had struggled to discover for himself the reconciliation of science and faith.
The film has been translated into eight languages. Worldwide, it has achieved a certain measure of success as well. We have a direct international streaming link that people can use. One of the interesting things is that the first people who wanted to translate it into their language were the Chinese. We were surprised to receive requests from satellite broadcasters to air it in the Middle East and North Africa. In these regions, the film has been translated it into Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi. That tells the universal appeal of Teilhard.
