In the Vatican of the
near-21st century, the election of a young, handsome American as pope
brings a terrifying surprise for cardinals. They’d expected an
inexperienced, malleable Vicar of Christ. Instead, Lenny Belardo—who
takes the name Pius XIII—proves ruthless in removing his enemies, adept
at keeping his allies off-balance, and deft in defusing the scandals he
creates. In the long course of papal history, this isn’t really new.
What’s different is how Lenny discards post-Vatican II traditions of a
welcoming and ecumenical papacy. There’s a new pontiff in town, and
sometimes he even talks like a sheriff.
By that description, Paolo Sorrentino’s
The Young Pope (set to air on HBO beginning January 15) may sound like the Vatican version of
House of Cards. Some will see in this
well-crafted, ten-episode series
a caricaturizing of the sins that have given the Vatican the reputation
it’s deserved more or less since the papal court was created early in
the second millennium. The city of Rome whose decaying majesty we
admired in Sorrentino’s
The Great Beauty
(Academy Award winner for best foreign language film in 2014) is here
condensed into the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque Vatican. But it
would be a mistake to see
The Young Pope as simply a parody.
Pius XIII (played by Jude Law) is a fictional pope who exhibits
qualities associated with post-World War II popes, chosen by Sorrentino
in order to show the complexities and ambiguities of papal power. In the
young Pius XIII there is something of Pius XII, something of Benedict
XVI, and something of Francis. There are other references to actual
figures from the past sixty years: Lenny’s theatrical gestures
recall
Pius XII, while the presence of an elderly nun running the Vatican in
lieu of the pope (here played by Dianne Keaton) recalls the infamous
Mother Pascalina Lehnert . Mentions of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican may
bring to mind the papacy of Benedict XVI, as will the use of the term
semper puer
(eternal child) to describe Lenny—a term Benedict’s opponents also
liked to use for effect. There also are parallels between the fictional
Cardinal Voiello, Pius XIII’s Secretary of State, and Benedict’s
Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone, including a
huge luxurious apartment and an intense passion for soccer (Naples for the Neapolitan Voiello, Turin Juventus for the Piedmontese Bertone).
As to parallels to (and criticism of) Pope Francis… In Pius XIII
there is a similar determination to address the style and the
orientation of the Vatican, something of the same willingness to change
how it does its business, including merchandising of the image of the
pope. And the anxiety, fear, and puzzlement of the Curia in how to deal
with Pius XIII
feel awfully familiar too.
So
The Young Pope is no parody, but it’s also deeper than
anticlerical satire. Especially during the Renaissance and early modern
era, the city of Rome was intentionally planned and (re)built as a
theatrical stage of the sacred. On this stage, Pius XIII embodies a
syndrome typical of the drama of Catholicism: the radical loneliness of
the pope, who paradoxically is in charge of keeping the Church in
communion. Sorrentino visualizes, in non-theological terms, the papacy
as an icon of solitude. In real life, of course, we’re still dealing,
visually and theologically, with the fact that there are now two men in
white in the Vatican.
The Young Pope can help us understand how
this image of papal solitude changed when Benedict resigned and chose
to reside within the walls of Vatican City at the Monastery of Mater
Ecclesiae.
The Young Pope also has something to say about religious
authority and the media. Pius XIII is determined to change the relations
between the two; he does not want to be popular merely because of the
visibility he gains via the media. He also rejects calls to be a visible
and accessible model of the faith for men and women of today, which
runs counter to actual notions over the past century about this role in a
papacy. In addition, the youthful Pius XIII is averse to the
contemporary obsession for up-to-dateness; yet his youthfulness and
energy also seems to be a mortal threat to the stability of the Church.
The story of Lenny’s church can be read as a warning about the
sustainability of radical change for our social and political
institutions.
The Young Pope received record ratings when it aired in
Italy last fall. But it could be more challenging for the American
public, both in its awe for the magnificence of the Vatican, and its
assumptions about religion in absolute moral terms.
The Young Pope is an allegory that uses the Vatican and the
papacy in a very intelligent and provocative way to show something the
Catholic Church embodies and represents, consciously or unconsciously,
for both Catholics and non-Catholics. And, in portraying that most
delicate moment at the Vatican—the transition of papal power to a new
pope—Sorrentino invites reflection on every transition of power. Thus
some viewers might see in
The Young Pope parallels between the election of Lenny Bernardo to the papacy and that of Donald Trump to the presidency.
The Young Pope
depicts what happens when the newly elected decides to break with
traditional modes and etiquette of communication; abandons custom
regarding visibility, accessibility, and adherence to previous norms;
and wields a power that seems supreme, unique, and terrifying. The fact
that the ten episodes will air between the last days of the Obama
administration and the first days of the Trump administration is—to use a
theological expression—providential.
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