Why Pope Leo is making a plea to save our cinemas

To the best of my knowledge, Pope Leo XIV has never visited the town of Yass in New South Wales.

Yet efforts by the Yass community to restore the town’s 1930s art deco Liberty Theatre are very much aligned with the Holy Father’s latest pronouncement. The theatre – once a cultural hub for the townspeople – recently screened its first film in more than 50 years.

In Yass, like everywhere else, smart devices provide an opportunity for screen-based entertainment. So, why spend time and money restoring an old cinema when you can watch anything you want on your iPhone at home?

Remarkably, the answer to this question is the same in Vatican City as it is in rural NSW.

A Hollywood audience at the Vatican

On November 15, Pope Leo XIV had something to say to the world about cinema.

For researchers such as myself who study cultures of cinemagoing this is both a welcome and strange development.

We don’t have a long history of popes listing their Letterboxd “top four” films of all time, but on the weekend, we got Leo’s: in case you missed it, they were The Sound of Music (1965), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Ordinary People (1980) and Life Is Beautiful (1997).

The pontiff’s decision to invite actors, directors and film executives to the Vatican to make a speech about why cinemas and cinemagoing still matter suddenly placed questions about the value of this practice squarely in front of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Australia’s Cate Blanchett was there, along with Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Adam Scott. So too were the filmmakers Darren Aronofsky, Spike Lee, Judd Apatow and Gaspar Noe. For anyone familiar with Noe’s oeuvre, it’s clear the pontiff wasn’t not playing it safe when it came to his choice of guests. This reflected a key line from his speech:

When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console but challenges.

Why is the pope talking about cinema?

As many of the residents of Yass will tell you, cinema is a powerful way for communities to come together and experience a shared story.

This experience, and the focus and commitment it demands from us, is arguably needed now more than ever.

The commentary in Yass when the Liberty Theatre reopened was not about the latest blockbuster, but the social, emotional and communal benefits the cinema enabled. As one resident explained:

Having a cinema back in Yass means the community can come together, and there’s a sense of pride as well.

In his Saturday address at the Vatican, Pope Leo did not hesitate to hold up cinemagoing as a deeply human and indeed spiritual pursuit that allows us to reflect on our own humanity:

Cinema combines what appears to be mere entertainment with the narrative of the human person’s spiritual adventure. One of cinema’s most valuable contributions is helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes and examine the world as if for the first time. In doing so, they rediscover a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest.

My own research has focused on understanding the various reasons cinemagoing is valuable for communities – and how the “social prescribing” of cinemagoing can benefit communities.

In surveys my colleagues and I conducted with industry, 81% of moviegoers said they believe cinemagoing enhances their overall wellbeing – underlining its broader benefits, despite the often reported gap between pre-pandemic attendance and now.

In his speech, Pope Leo homed in on one overlooked but increasingly valued understanding of why cinema matters: we get to focus. In an attention economy where “second screen shows” play alongside other digital distractions, giving ourselves over to a single onscreen story may provide much needed relief. In the pope’s own words:

We live in an age where digital screens are always on. There is a constant flow of information. However, cinema is much more than just a screen; it is an intersection of desires, memories and questions. […] As the plot unfolds, our mind is educated, our imagination broadens, and even pain can find new meaning.

A practical call to action

For anyone who thinks academics read too much into cinemagoing, the notion of going to see Avatar as an “intersection of desires, memories and questions” may seem overblown.

But the speech wasn’t just heavy on the metaphysical, it also spoke to practical issues and solutions. The pope spoke about cinemas’ struggles to sustain audiences, the closure of sites, and the idea the cinematic experience may be in danger.

He urged institutions to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity and, like the good people of Yass, pointed squarely at why we should value cinemagoing:

If a city is alive, it is thanks in part to its cultural spaces. We must inhabit these spaces and build relationships within them, day after day.

If Pope Leo ever makes it to Yass, hopefully he will find a community united around its local theatre.