Jonathan Roumie, the actor playing Jesus in the series The Chosen, met Pope Francis after the August 11 general audience, accompanied by the director of the series, Dallas Jenkins.
Roumie is an active Catholic:
“Meeting the Pope has always been a childhood dream of mine,” Roumie said. “I never expected that it would happen in this way because of me playing Jesus in a series that has become a worldwide phenomenon. Today has been one of the greatest spiritual moments of my life.”
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The two were also accompanied by Neal Harmon, cofounder and CEO of Angel Studios, the distributor of the series.
The Chosen is the first multi-season show about Jesus and the No. 1 crowdfunded media project in history.
Roumie and Jenkins are good friends and have worked together on various faith-based projects, though they come from different denominations. Jenkins is an Evangelical Christian.
“Meeting the Pope was a lovely experience," Jenkins said, "but more important to me is that it represents the growth the show is experiencing with people of different faith traditions than my own, and in other countries. I didn’t expect that, but when we focus on Jesus, walls break down, cultural and religious."
The Chosen is the highest crowd-funded project of all-time, raising $10 million from more than 19,000 people to fund its first season. The second season just finished a few weeks ago. Seven seasons are planned.
The series is completely free to watch, and has been translated already into 50 languages.
