By FLÁVIO R. KOTHE*
Considerations on the film directed by Edward Berger
1.
We do not have the key to the Conclave that will choose Pope Franciscus' successor. We can, however, find some keys in the film The conclave, which won an Oscar this year, in addition to the obvious key that it was an investment made when the pope was already old and it could be predicted that his passing would encourage millions of viewers to watch it. What is certain, however, is that the Conclave will be different from the film, although the latter tries to be up to date with the conflicting political trends. Even the proposed solution, the election of someone outside the normal collegiate, has already occurred in history.
I saw the film with my 22-year-old son, an engineer, and I found the conflict of opinions we had at the end interesting. As the film was drawing to a close, I found myself spontaneously commenting that the authors of the novel and the script had overdone the dose of psyops of the CIA, pushing the boundaries of identity ideology. My son said he was just trying to have fun watching the movie; I replied that the price of Yankee fun is indoctrination.
I didn't use the expression brainwashing. My son studies at a university where the gender doctrine has led to the practice of only women running for rector, because they are better at caring than men.
What is the key of The conclave? If the script's argument is correct, the next pope would have to be bisexual, a hermaphrodite. Only then would he be able to avoid being dogmatic and doubting the foundation of his faith. However, if such a pope were to emerge, he would immediately have to present medical certificates denying the fact. He would be haunted by exhausting rumors for the rest of his term. Just as President Dilma Rousseff was worn down by a sordid smear campaign, claiming she was authoritarian and stupid: they ended up legitimizing the coup d'état that victimized her without any formal guilt.
If the film really had the power to influence it claims, every papabile would have to prove his sexuality. This is exactly what is excluded from the lives of Catholics, who take a vow of chastity to dedicate themselves entirely to the Church. It is equivalent to the sacrifice that Jews make with circumcision, which lasts a lifetime and does not need to be done every day.
2.
The papacy is the only elected monarchy, since the electors are supposed to have no children whom their parents might want to promote as successors. The model of the Catholic Church is in Republic of Plato. In this government of the wise, the Greek master postulated heliocentrism as what would distinguish the “owners of the truth” and the Greek believers, who had an implicit geocentrism in the belief that Apollo would take the Sun across the sky each day.
Today, everyone knows that neither the Sun nor the Earth are the center of the universe, because the universe does not even have a center, since it has no limits (and is not a universe). Of course, Christians understand this in their own words, because they have a god that surrounds all of this, encompasses everything and more. Heliocentrism was an Egyptian doctrine to legitimize Tutankhamun, as the son of the Sun. When this monotheism was ousted by the return of polytheism, it was imposed on the Jews, chosen by Egyptian priests to maintain this belief (which was passed on to several later religions).
The film The conclave adopts the Catholic thesis that the electoral college is inspired by the Holy Spirit (who generally cannot communicate well with the cardinals, since there is no unanimity of votes). He appears through bomb attacks, which force a decision. The votes show the clash between different forces: Italian cardinals of the curia, who want to preserve power; Americans and Europeans ambitious for power; a black cardinal, representing the third world; a more reactionary and arrogant cardinal.
The film is a detective novel. This role is played by the Camerlengo, who oversees the symposium and is forced to take on the task of solving mysteries three times. The first occurs during the cardinals' night's rest, when a female and a male voice are heard arguing. In the morning, a black nun drops a tray. The Camerlengo goes to investigate, but the nun who oversees the work of the religious women wants to solve everything herself.
He demands that she obey. So he gets in touch with the nun of African origin: in confession, she says she had had a child with the black cardinal papabile when they were young. When he is approached, he admits that he had had the affair, but that it had not been repeated, that the child had been adopted by a family, and that a youthful sin should not prevent him from becoming pope. This defense is not accepted for him to be worthy of the office.
The investigation is being developed to find out who summoned this nun to the Vatican during this period. This time, the Camerlengo has the cooperation of the supervising nun, who gives him access to private papal documents that allow him to decipher what had happened between the late pope and another candidate for the position: there is a rumor that he had been asked to abdicate. The latter had tried to get rid of the African candidate by summoning those who could compromise him. Copies of these documents are then distributed to all the cardinal electors. In this way, two candidates are eliminated.
The dispute between the remaining parties is getting more intense, even more so because terrorist attacks are taking place abroad. The European candidates are facing off. The candidate furthest to the right vehemently preaches the need to eliminate enemies in the ongoing religious war. The problem that now arises is how to prevent the Vatican from falling into the hands of the intolerant and dogmatic extreme right. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into play.
After a vehement discussion, the cardinal's voice is heard in pectoris, secretly appointed by the Holy Father, the Cardinal of Kabul. He says that he had been to different countries and seen several wars, with Catholic and other religious bodies. It was necessary to avoid wars, to fight for mutual understanding, for compassion. That this, yes, was the doctrine of Christ. In the following vote, he was elected Pope.
3.
There is, however, a secret about him, to be deciphered by the Camerlengo, who learned that he had gone to a Swiss clinic sponsored by the late Pope. When asked, he said that he had actually gone there to examine the possibility of surgery. In outward appearance, at boarding school, he was indistinguishable from the other boys, but he had soon discovered that he had ovaries. It would be possible to remove them through surgery, but he had decided not to do it, because if God had made him the way he was, he had to accept himself as he was. He had told the Pope this before being named cardinal. in pectoris. This fact is not shared with everyone: the spectator knows more than the college of cardinals…
In Greek mythology, there was a figure who had been a woman and then a man. This character was asked how he had felt more pleasure. In the case of the new pope, the film's thesis is that he would be more understanding, less dogmatic. There is no proof of a causal relationship here.
The doctrine of gender identity seems to preach the equality of the different (to proclaim, if you will, the superiority of the differentiated), to leave aside the central issue, the inequality between rich and poor, between owners of the means of production and wage earners. In the same way, the film does not delve into the basic issue of religion: the belief in life after death, in the “resurrection of the flesh”.
“Pascal’s wager” dealt with this. His argument is fallacious, coming from a monk who was a mathematical genius. Knowing that one is going to die, there would be a chance of having that life and a chance of not having it: 1 x 1. If the subject bet that there would be no such thing, if there were, he would be at a loss; if he bet that there would be, and there were, he would come out on top (so the way to go was to bet that there would be). It is a bet, not a certainty, but the calculation of probabilities is used to indoctrinate.
The assumption is, however, that there would be only one true God. Men have created, however, thousands of different gods: if a person were to bet on a certain god, praying to him all his life, and it were not that god who appeared in the afterlife, but another, the wrong believer would certainly be sent to the depths of hell. The proportion would no longer be 1 x 1, but 1 x 1 in >1000. Even among monotheists, God is not always the same.
The question therefore shifts from eternal life to the need to believe that the subject will be preserved for all and ever. He feels so precious that he thinks he deserves this and even a paradise. A simple name for this is narcissism, but it does not resolve the issue. Every believer is a denier. It is more comforting to believe than to accept doubt, the certainty of spiritual death.
Beneath the humility of priests and pastors lies the arrogance of feeling so important that they only accept one god as their lord, their boss. They give up the glories of the world (this is not exactly what we see in the luxury of the Vatican) in order to achieve eternal glory. They exchange a little for a lot, just as they exchange a few hours of worship and liturgy for eternity. Obtaining such an advantage would be like a lottery, a machine invented by Pascal for the amusement of the aristocracy.
Franciscus was a good pope: he defended the poor and the needy, and preached fraternity, tolerance, and peace. He should be succeeded by someone more to the right and, God willing, European and Italian. If a poor Brazilian is impressed by the red, black, and blue vestments of the religious, the richness of the colored marble, the statues, and the buildings of the Church, they are even more impressive if taken in the name of poverty. They should be a sign of access to the divine.
* Flavio R. Kothe is a retired full professor of aesthetics at the University of Brasília (UnB). Author, among other books, of Allegory, aura and fetish (Cajuína Publisher). [https://amzn.to/4bw2sGc].
Reference
Conclave
USA, UK, Northern Ireland, 2024, 120 minutes.
Directed by: Edward Berger.
Screenplay: Richard Harris and Peter Straughan
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Sergio Castellitto.
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