Conclave: a review

The film begins with Cardinal Lawrence, the Dean of Cardinals, walking purposively to the papal apartments to perform his duty of examining the dead pope's body. Fiennes fills the role very well and is a very believable character. The film is here getting to  a good start, for it shows the procedures that are followed at the pope's death, all of which show that the film is well researched. I believe that the film presents the Vatican in a balanced way, being alert to the problems faced by the church, which inevitably surface at Conclaves without focusing excessively on any one of them. 

There are  four cardinals other than Cardinal Lawrence who are significant in this film. There is an̈ Italian  traditionalist, Cardinal Tedesco, who shows his theological colours by arriving cloaked in red, a sign of  his commitment to traditional ways such as the Latin mass, known as the Tridentine rite, There is an African Cardinal, Cardinal Adeyemi, who is a favourite in the  church's desire to honour Africa with a black pope, and  a Canadian , Cardinal Tremblay,  who is deemed very likely to get the papacy. A fourth, Cardinal Bellini, an Italian is a reformer, a stout foe of the German traditionalist,

A surprise arrival is a relatively young, unknown Cardinal, Cardinal Benitez,  who was the archbishop of Kabul. He has been secretly made a cardinal "in pectore", which means "in the breast" a technique for appointing someone who is the cardinal for an area where the church is heavily persecuted, as it is under the control of Muslim extremists. The man has extensive experience as a missionary. A good. candidate, but somewhat different. Cardinal Lawrence, as Dean of Cardinals, has to decide whether to accept the newcomer. He does so,  and the consequences are significant.. 

The nuns play their part. They do the domestic arrangements, feeding the Cardinals and cleaning their accommodation. The nuns are not brokers in the male cardinals'  machinations, but quietly get on with their duties. This is realistic, for in the recent scandals that have beset the church not many women have been culprits, as opposed to males, who form the bulk of the miscreants

The Vatican is rife with plotting, and it gets worse during conclaves, when the cardinals are sequestered with their schemes. The conclave's participants meet in small cabals plotting  the best way to get their preferred cardinal elected, and initially  the voting is not going well for the  reformers, as the Canadian cardinal seems to be accumulating votes. He is not a reformer like Bellini and Lawrence, but the archbishop of Kabul is acquiring none.

Yet intimations of skulduggery are never far from the surface, and they come the way of Cardinal Lawrence. He is faced with a dilemma, for the reformers are beginning to see him as the last hope,a   substitute for the failing Bellini, but Lawrence confesses that he wants to retire and join a religious order, but the late pope had refused his resignation. John Paul the Second refused Cardinal Ratzinger's resignation,  when he wanted to retire to head the Vatican library. Ratzinger was later to become Benedict the Sixteenth.

Yet a distressed Cardinal Woziak, prefect of the papal household, approaches Lawrence to say that he has inside information that the Canadian cardinal had been dismissed from office by the pope on the night prior to the pope's death. If true this would debar him from office and render votes for him invalid.

This is a situation that has never previously arisen. But the cardinal denies  the claim. However, Lawrence is dissatisfied and investigates.  During the night he breaks the wax seals on the sealed papal apartments and finds hidden away a document revealing that the Canadian cardinal was dismissed for simony, selling ecclesiastical offices. He has been trying to bribe his way to the papacy. There are other cardinals who have been receptive to taking the bribes.

But while this is happening there is a problem with one of the nuns, who in a state of distress, drops a tray of food. The nuns want to conceal the causes, but Lawrence smells a rat, as it were. He, as Dean of Cardinals and therefore as senior cleric he investigates. It transpires that she, an African, has been suddenly called to the Vatican on the request of the Canadian cardinal.  It transpires that the African Cardinal, who is getting a credible number of votes in the election, is her father. He has had her looked after by a good Catholic family. But the Canadian cardinal has discovered the relationship and has had her called to Rome to embarrass his rival. Lawrence decides to act. He pressurizes the African candidate to back out of the voting. But in the meantime  a car bomb has exploded in Rome. There are, unbeknown to the Cardinals more bombs to come. But Lawrence is busy with the assistance of the senior nun in a plan to thwart the corruption of the  Canadian cardinal. The nun runs off photocopies of the incriminating document and lays them on the cardinals' seats. This causes arguments in the conclave, but then other bombs explode, and the Sistine chapel where the cardinals are assembled is damaged. Lawrence is wounded. But in all of this the archbishop of Kabul says nothing. He stays out of the arguments and scheming. 

There is always a plan B to deal with an emergency like this, and it involves busing the cardinals to a safe place where they can continue their deliberations.  A stock of ballot papers has been taken with them.  Cardinal Tedescho launches into an emotionally charged rant against Muslims, whom he believes have planted the bombs, but the newcomer asks to speak. He talks with wisdom, and charity. The cardinals realize that the newcomer is inspired with the truest faith of them all. He is  elected pope. Problems solved? By no means. The next problem is looming in the Vatican.

 It has come to Lawrence's attention that the new pope had cancelled an operation at a clinic before he attended the conclave, and Lawrence approaches him to inquire what the matter was. The new pope is open and honest: he had been due to have a hysterectomy. He has female sex organs, and this may prevent him from being a priest let alone a pope. Lawrence thinks that he has a Pope Joan [the mythical female pope of the early Middle Ages] on his hands. The new pope offers to resign, but Lawrence digs further. The new pope has all the externally visible sex organs of a male, and on the basis of this he entered seminary  thinking that he was fully male. But he only discovered his  feminine side when he had an appendix operation. He is not a woman, but is intersex. He has never concealed his womanly  side from his superiors. The previous pope had known, but did not think it an impediment, and on matters of candidates for ordination the pope has the final choice. Lawrence accepts his new superior. 

The film finishes with Lawrence opening a window to let some light into the dark corridors of the Vatican, symbolic of the church making a new beginning. He sees and hears a group of nuns chatting loudly about the events. As a member of a church that denies the legitimacy of female ordination he is being led to accept the place of women in the church. The ending is happy, but more struggles lie ahead.

I found this film to be thoroughly enjoyable, and at times in the future I will watch it again. The film addresses some of the issues affecting the Roman Catholic Church, but it approaches them with wisdom and an open mind. The characters are well-imagined and are all believable. I would recommend this film to all readers. 

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