THE YOUNG POPE
Italy/US, 2016, 10 X 50 minute episodes, colour.
Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Javier Kumara, Scott Sheppard, Cecile de France, would have been suddenly a, Tony better really, James Cromwell, Guy Boyd, Stefan Causey, Andre Gregory.
Directed by Paulo Sorrentino.
Paolo Sorrentino surprised his audiences with his follow-up to La Grande Bellezza, The Young Pope (2016), a 10 part television mini-series.
The series had quite some acclaim but adjectives used to describe it included weird and bizarre. This was especially true for Catholic audiences. Sorrentino wrote the screenplay initially during the pontificate of Benedict the XVI and concluded the writing and filmed it during the pontificate of Pope Francis. Sorrentino has expressed admiration for Francis and his pastoral approach and humanity but, in interviews, has reminded us that, with another Pope, there could be a reversal of approach.
Jude Law plays Lenny Belardo, a comparatively young American cardinal from New York City who is, unexpectedly, elected as Pope Pius XIII. His mentor, Cardinal Michael Spencer (James Cromwell) had expected to be elected and is somewhat bitter with the result of the election. This immediately means that the audience is taken into Vatican life, Vatican diplomacy, Vatican intrigue. And remains there.
Response to the series will depend on audience interest in the Vatican and the Papacy, favourable, unfavourable, which can be both critical and ignorant. And, depending on how Pope Pius XIII comes across, favourable and unfavourable will continue to be the responses.
Provocatively, during the opening credits of most episodes, the Pope walks along a Vatican gallery past artworks – and then, winks at the camera and at the audience. Irony – and how seriously should we take it? In fact, Pius XIII takes it all extremely seriously – although Sorrentino again provokes his audience by having the Pope deliver an initial speech to the waiting public in St Peter’s Square seeming to advocate all the controversial subjects of our time, especially sexual and moral issues. But, it is a dream. In fact, the Pope is far more likely to take a dim view as regards what he sees as sexual immorality. During the series, clerical homosexuality is a recurring theme, there is an abortion issue and birth, clerical sexual impropriety, double standards in a Mother Teresa kind of heroic nun working in Africa, and, towards the end, sexual abuse of minors.
Lenny takes to the papacy with all seriousness, comfortable in his white robes, wanting everyone to address him as Your Holiness (including Sister Mary, Diane Keaton, who is brought to Rome as his advisor and mentor and who appears in a younger version in the many flashbacks to Lenny’s being an orphan, delivered to the orphanage, brought up by the sisters, especially Sister Mary, along with his close friend, Dussolier. Even though he quotes Pope John Paul II as forbidding smoking in the Vatican, he is able to indulge because he is the Pope.
On the other hand, there are many scenes showing the ordinary humanity of Pius XIII, in his bedroom, naked in his shower, getting dressed, doing an enormous range of gym exercises.
This Pope does not want to be seen by the faithful, avoiding making his initial speech to the Cardinals, not going out in public, shielding his face if there was a possibility that he be seen. However, he has a great deal of interaction with the Cardinals, and quite a range of Cardinals they are. Chief of these is his Secretary of State, Voiello who might have been Pope, Silvio Orlando. Italian, versed in the ways of the Vatican and the Curia, not above intrigue, sometimes urged by fellow Cardinals to get evidence against Pius and even to plot some trapping of him in scandalous situations, especially concerning a young woman married to a Swiss guard with whom he becomes friends, playful with their child, turning up uninvited at their house. His press adviser, with easy access to him, is a woman.
There are also some old Cardinals who regret having elected Pius and who are seen conniving together in a variety of meetings. There is also a cardinal in charge of the clergy who has a homosexual orientation – though not necessarily in practice. Pius is very severe on him, interrogating him, upgrading him, and exiling him to a parish in Alaska.
Pius speaks a great deal about prayer and takes time in prayer but he is also American-shrewd, seen particularly in the visit by the Italian prime minister who prides himself on his own shrewdness but is several times one-upped by the Pope.
The Pope is persuaded to travel to Africa, taking Sister Mary with him, also an entourage, at first avoiding being seen, discussing her work with the famous nun (unmistakable parallels with Mother Teresa) who emerges as doing charitable work but rather colonial in her attitudes and behaviour, self-centred, living a far more comfortable life than the people she works for. The Pope excels himself in condemning her, closing her down – and, later, and surprisingly, sending Sister Mary to take her place and continue her work properly.
His orphanage friend and companion, Dussolier, is also a cardinal, anxious to get back to his work in South America. When he does return, he is seen to be in a relationship with the wife of one of the authorities, which leads to his being murdered.
Another key character is Guttierez, played by Javier Camara, who was very sheltered life as a boy, entered the seminary young, ordained young, and also living a sheltered priestly life in the Vatican. At one stage, he is prevailed upon by the Secretary of State to provide evidence against the Pope. However, he confesses and becomes the Pope’s confidante. This is especially true when the Pope wants to deal with an archbishop in New York who is accused of sexual abuse. He sends the inexperienced Guttierez to deal with the situation, it often proving far too much for the quiet cleric, but his ultimately rising to the occasion.
The Archbishop is prevailed upon to go to Rome, is interrogated by Pius. What is revealed is that the Archbishop had been abused seriously as a boy and, while emotionally wounded, has acted out on others what he himself suffered. Sorrentino must have drawn on Italian protocols about sexual abuse of minors rather than those in force in English-speaking countries like the United States where any cleric accused has to stand down from ministry and, if found guilty, is charged. Pius XIII sends the offending Archbishop not to the police but to that outpost in Alaska.
By the middle of the series, it could be remarked that the authoritarian Pope Pius IX of the 19th century might have enjoyed the series. Towards the end, however, there is a gradual dramatic change in the Pope. He gets a very solid talking to by Cardinal Michael Spencer, urging him to a more pastoral understanding of people and their problems. He also talks with Guttierrez, acknowledging his homosexual orientation but again being pastorally sympathetic and not exiling him.
The series comes to an end in Venice. The Cardinals have tried to find the Pope’s parents, hippies from the past who left him at the orphanage, and at one stage they provide a fake couple. However, in Venice, when the Pope allows himself to be seen, and has a sense of his parent’s presence, he becomes more authentically human, only to collapse.
Sorrentino has said there will be no sequel but is interested in further explorations of the Papacy.
The series is of value in providing a large number of priest characters, from the eccentric Pope himself, to differing Cardinals, old and young, with international backgrounds, some devout, some scheming, as well as archbishops and bishops, ordinary priests, priests who are in curial and secretarial roles, some edifying, some disedifying, an opportunity for the audience, especially the bewildered, to test out their own attitudes towards priests, weird and bizarre or admirable, and the need for priests to show pastoral compassion, personal integrity, and some holiness.
