`In politics as in the papacy, it is in the end a numbers game…’
IF you are looking for an appropriate movie for Lent or even the Easter Triduum, consider “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger.
On top of the critical and artistic merits — three BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), an Oscar, and a Golden Globe — the film gives us a glimpse of how a select group of Roman Catholic clergymen, called the College of Cardinals, elects a successor to the Holy See.
It also shows us two aspects of the Catholic church. One side is the belief that it is guided by Divine inspiration. The other is that, because it is human, it is beset by the weaknesses of the flesh.
The film begins with the death of an unnamed pope. British Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), dean of the College of Cardinals, is to supervise the election of the new Pope.
Sequestered in a locked (with a key, in Latin cum + clave) hall in the Vatican, tension is high among the potential successors to the papacy. Although any baptized male Catholic can become pope, canon law states the new pope must at least be a bishop or, if not yet, must be “ordained a bishop immediately” as the pope is also the bishop of Rome. Recent practice has limited the choice to a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Cardinals are typically bishops and archbishops. In medieval times, prince-bishops became common in Europe, holding both secular and spiritual powers.
(In fact the naming convention of first name + title + surname, as in Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila from 1976 to 2003, takes after the royal practice of name + title. The sovereign of the United Kingdom signs his name as Charles R [for Rex, king], and his late mother Elizabeth R [Regina, queen].)
In the late Middle Ages, two prominent and rival families — the Borgias of Valencia, Spain (where they were known as Borja) and the Medici of Florence, Italy — produced more than a dozen cardinals from the 15th to the 17th centuries, including five popes. The Jesuit saint Francisco Borgia was the great-grandson of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Most popes have been Italian (217), followed by French (16) and German (6).
About 300 years later, this domination was interrupted by the Polish John Paul II from 1978 to 2005 and the Argentinian (although Spanish-speaking and ethnically Italian, was technically non-European) Francis since 2013, with the German Benedict XVI in between. Will the next pope be from North America, or the Third World?
In the movie, the contenders are the Canadian Joseph Tremblay, Italian Goffredo Tedesco (which means German), Nigerian Joshua Adeyemi and American Aldo Bellini (played by Stanley Tucci).
There is not much action in the movie, but the lines are memorable. In one scene, Lawrence and Bellini argue why Bellini and not his Italian rival should be elected, and the word “defeat” is uttered.
Lawrence: Defeat. This is a conclave, Aldo. It’s not a war…
Bellini: It is a war! And you have to commit to a side.
In politics as in the papacy, it is in the end a numbers game, although the film ends as if affirming the words of the apostle Paul, “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.”
Conclave is still screening in a few cinemas in Metro Manila and streaming in a number of online services. If you can’t find it, you can never go wrong with Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins in the 2019 The Two Popes.
Trivia: One of the last-minute electors in Conclave was the Mexican archbishop of Baghdad. In the 2016 novel of the same title by Robert Harris, this bishop, Vincent Benitez, was a Filipino. This detail makes more dramatic the presence of a Filipino cardinal today in The Vatican.
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Gary Mariano taught full time for 35 years at De La Salle University where he once chaired the Department of Communication. A former chair of the Philippine Press Council, he was a member of the CHED Technical Committee for Journalism. In retirement, he helps promote local media-citizen councils, teaches part time, and serves at Our Lady of Beautiful Love parish.
