On
October 25, Conclave will appear in movie theaters across the
country. This thriller about a fictitious papal-election has garnered glowing
reviews on the film festival circuit. In fact, the movie has garnered a 94
percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In its
fawning review, the Hollywood Reporter notes, "The film
raises timely issues of sexual and racist prejudices within organized religion,
while also acknowledging the sexual scandals that have rocked the Church in
recent years." Entertainment Weekly adds that "much
of the film interrogates the gap between the Catholic Church's sins and the
true meaning of faith...."
Since Conclave is
about the intrigue surrounding the election of a new pope, one might wonder how
these negative elements fit into the plot. Unfortunately, the reviews are
scarce on specific details, but looking at the 2016 novel it is based on
provides more insight.
Like the
movie, the novel revolves around the political intrigue of a papal election. Of
course, the leading candidates have some sort of moral failing.
·
Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi from Africa who holds traditional
views had an affair with a nun and fathered a child ruling him out of
contention.
·
Cardinal Joseph Tremblay a smooth Vatican insider is
involved in a scandal of selling Church offices and appointments to bolster his
support.
·
Liberal Cardinal Aldo Bellini who favors modernizing the
Church is a suffering hero rejected by the College of Cardinals.
·
Foiling Bellini is the ultra-conservative Cardinal Goffredo
Tedesco, a boorish man.
In the
middle of the conclave there is an attack by Islamic terrorists prompting
Tedesco to effectively call for a new crusade, ending his candidacy.
Ultimately, the conclave selects Cardinal Vincent BenÃtez, a relatively unknown
prelate from the Philippines who currently serves as the Archbishop of Baghdad.
In a final twist, it turns out BenÃtez is intersex with what looks to be male
reproductive organs but is female.
The
author, Robert Harris, claims he has no real religious tradition. However, he
is a devout British liberal, even authoring a novel to attack Tony Blair, which
was made into a film in collaboration with sexual predator Roman Polanski. In
fact, the pair worked on three films. Harris even defended Polanski from his
critics saying his crimes are a problem of culture and fashion.
In the
novel's Acknowledgements, Harris cites a slew of dissident Catholic writers
including John Cornwell, a British author known for the totally discredited
book Hitler's Pope.
It is
equally instructive to consider what some of the people associated with the
movie have said:
·
Director Edward Berger—"If the Catholic Church wants
to survive and take a step into the future it needs to change quickly...."
·
Leading actor Ralph Fiennes—"When religious things
become so codified, so doctrinal and extreme, then they become for me very
frightening." He then criticized Pope Benedict XVI, "I don't think
anyone who considers themselves an enlightened Catholic can like him."
·
Supporting actor Stanley Tucci played the anti-Catholic
Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian in Spotlight, lauding his work.
That tells us volumes about Tucci's real agenda.
Given
what we know about Conclave from the fawning critics, the
novel, and what people associated with the film have said, Conclave is
more a piece of anti-Catholic propaganda than it is a work of art. It might
have stunning cinematic sequences and a star studded cast, but those things do
not redeem the underlying ugliness of the project, namely it aims to paint the
Catholic Church in the most negative light possible.
