CARDINAL MICHAEL SPENCER: To set every Christian
and journalist in the world against you...
in the first week of your papacy?
This is part of my plan.
Your parents rejected you.
So you want to make the world pay for the wrong it did you.
CARDINAL GUTIERREZ: I know that woman,
that's Esther, the wife of Peter, a Swiss Guard.
You wanted to meet me.
(ESTHER GASPS)
Have you ever asked yourself how I've managed to run
The Papal State all these years?
By learning people's secrets.
He told me, with some nostalgia,
about a girlfriend he had when he was just a kid...
I knew it.
[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[birds chirping]
[horse nickers]
[all speaking Italian]
[woman singing in Italian over speakers]
[indistinct murmuring]
[crowd shouting]
[instrumental rock version of "All Along the Watchtower"]
♪ ♪
[xylophone tinkling]
♪ ♪
[smooth rock music]
- [speaking Latin]
♪ ♪
- [crying softly]
- Why were you crying?
- My sister is dying.
- Where is your sister?
- At home, in Sri Lanka.
- What's wrong with her?
- She's dying.
- Have you gone to see her?
- I don't have the courage.
- Why'd you become a nun?
- I met the Lord.
- Where?
- In a bar. I was poor.
A drunk German came up to me and said,
"God helps the poor."
- Are you strong?
- I do my best.
But I'm little.
- You must be strong, for your sister.
- I shall be. - And pray.
Pray till you can't pray anymore.
- I always do.
- And if your sister were to die,
would you return to Sri Lanka for the funeral?
- No. - Why not?
- Because when I go home,
I'm overcome with such terrible memories
that I end up doubting whether God exists.
And I don't want to doubt whether God exists.
- You're not the only one who doubts.
[static crackling]
- Excuse me?
- I said I understand.
All right, that's enough.
- [speaking Italian]
- Would young Esther like an espresso?
Are you sure?
I even arranged to buy some cane sugar.
I know that you young people go crazy over cane sugar.
Let's come to the point, Estherina.
First of all, you should stay calm and rest assured
that we only want what's best for you.
We are your friends.
Now, I've come upon this report,
of which only the people in this room are aware,
I am pleased to tell you,
that you had an extramarital relationship
with Valente, the Pope's assistant.
You understand without being told
that this is an awkward matter.
Because of the rank of the people involved.
Because of the fear of gossip.
Because of how badly this might disappoint the Pope.
Because of the terrible repercussions
that might ensue if news of this matter were to get out.
Shouting, dramatic scenes,
transfers, firings.
And of course,
it's especially embarrassing in moral terms.
Catholics united in holy matrimony
swear to be faithful to their spouses.
You have sinned, Esther.
We know and we understand
that this was a moment of weakness.
It happens.
As a boy, whenever Napoli, my favorite soccer team,
was in serious trouble, don't you think I found myself
being a little sympathetic toward Avellino?
[chuckles] Yes, I did.
In your sin, we don't detect the marks of unbridled lust,
but the fact remains that the act you committed
was gravely wrong.
Very gravely wrong.
[tense woodwind music]
♪ ♪
[music stops]
[object clatters]
Fine, now, I am ready to guarantee
that not a word of that disagreeable episode
will ever leave this room.
And what do you guarantee me in return?
Don't worry.
It's me...
Voiello.
- Why does sin bring sorrow?
Why does sin bring starvation?
[crying] Why does sin bring arrogance?
Why does sin bring coercion?
- You remind me of my first and only girlfriend, Esther.
Only you are much prettier.
One should never be ashamed nor proud of one's beauty,
because God asks us to rejoice in it.
Do you rejoice in your beauty?
I bet you don't let your husband rejoice in your beauty either.
I think that's a mistake.
The punishment of God is never over beauty, never.
Now, tell me what your problem is.
Then I'll do it for you.
Esther is a fervent Roman Catholic woman
who is happily married to Peter and childless.
She enjoys spending her mornings roller-skating
with the children of the other Swiss Guards.
But it isn't roller-skating Esther loves.
She loves what she can't have.
- You ask me what my problem is,
but you already know because you are so profound.
- I'm not profound. I'm presumptuous.
What matters is that you talk about your problem.
- Yes, Holy Father.
I'm...
sterile.
And Peter is sterile too.
I'd like to listen to a child's voice.
- Pray to Mary, our Mother of miracles,
who intercedes for us.
She knows what to do.
- "Pray to Mary,
"our Mother of miracles,
"who intercedes for us.
She knows what to do."
- My sister is dead, Holy Father.
- Let us pray for her.
- I'd like to go to Sri Lanka for her funeral.
- Don't go chasing the dead, Suree,
or else the dead will chase after you.
[babies wailing]
[sighs heavily]
- Elena.
- She takes after you.
Vis baptizare?
Elena, ego te baptizo,
in nomine Patris...
et Filii...
et Spiritus Sancti.
[babies crying]
- Allegra.
- She takes after you.
Ego te baptizo,
in nomine Patris...
et Filii...
et Spiritus Sancti.
[baby crying]
- Aida.
[baby crying]
- She takes after you.
[crying continues]
Yeah, it's perfectly clear she's been adopted,
but it doesn't change a thing.
She still takes after you.
[water trickles]
[crying continues]
- Carolus.
- Holy Father, I beg your pardon.
I really had no idea I was in the men's bathroom.
- Actually, this is neither
the men's bathroom nor the women's.
This is the Pope's bathroom.
- I'm so sorry.
Do you mind if I finish applying my lipstick?
- Even if I did mind,
a woman like yourself would find a way
to go on applying it anyway.
So please, go right ahead.
- You know women, Holy Father.
- Hmm...
that's a reckless statement, signora.
- [chuckles]
- Come take a look.
- Who's that man that's caught the interest of half the Curia?
- Personal assistant to the prime minister of Greenland.
- Is he gay?
- Openly so.
- And the woman is the prime minister?
- That's right.
And she has an audience with you,
Holy Father.
- Mm.
Doesn't that strike you as odd?
- What, Your Holiness?
- After all, wouldn't etiquette require
that we entertain the prime minister,
not her assistant?
- The Cardinal Secretary of State
is entertaining her.
- And what about the fact that such a sizable group of men
have eyes only for a handsome man
and pay no attention to such stunning feminine beauty?
- Holy Father,
I know exactly how to answer that question.
- How?
- With silence.
- Why?
- Because you should never stick your nose
into other people's business.
Especially not in the Vatican.
The prime minister of Greenland is waiting for you.
- [sighs]
I know.
I'm incredibly handsome,
but please, let's try to forget about that.
What have you brought for me?
- The best our country has to offer, Holy Father.
This is the largest halibut
caught in all of Greenland last week.
- This is very good
poached in a light broth,
just like pezzogna.
- Pezzogna? - Sea bass.
- And this is a beautiful song by an Italian singer
who's pretty popular in our country.
She's called Nada, and the song is entitled "Senza un Perché."
- Thank you.
This is from me for you.
- Thank you, Holy Father.
It's...wonderful.
Holy Father,
first of all, I bring you the greetings
of the Catholic community of Nuuk, in Greenland.
- Yes, I know all about Nuuk.
It's a small Catholic community
that you have in Greenland.
Am I right? - Yes, you are.
The predominant faith in Greenland
is Evangelical Lutheran.
- And you have a female bishop, if I'm not wrong.
- Exactly.
Sofia Petersen, an estimable woman.
- All bishops are estimable.
Did you know that Pope Pasquale II
appointed the first bishop to Greenland--
a place that, as you know very well,
is technically part of North America--
four full centuries before Christopher Columbus?
- I do know that, Holy Father.
- The Catholic Church was the first to arrive in Greenland.
But it's not always the case that the first to arrive
remains first.
- I agree, Holy Father.
- In Greenland, we Catholics
are like the Native Americans.
We got there first
and then we were confined to reservations.
- I agree, Holy Father.
- You're a woman who tends to agree.
Oh, don't worry, Madam Prime Minister.
I'm not asking you for anything
for our small community in Greenland.
I just wanted to remind you
that we Catholics were there first.
Everyone else is a guest.
I don't want you to forget that.
- I won't, Holy Father.
- Very good!
Now, I ask you,
please satisfy my morbid curiosity.
Since your country never thaws,
I have to wonder,
what's under all that ice?
- The experts believe that Greenland is not an island
but an archipelago of islands.
But that's strictly a matter of supposition.
As you say, the country never thaws
and no one can see what's under there.
- I think the experts are wrong.
- Really, Holy Father?
- Yes.
Under all that ice...
could be God.
[cart squeaking and clattering]
[laid-back music playing on record]
♪ ♪
[woman singing in Italian on record]
♪ ♪
[ropes creaking]
[singing continues]
♪ ♪
- Gratia plena,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc,
et in hora mortis nostrae.
Amen.
both: Ave Maria,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
- Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc,
et in hora mortis nostrae.
Amen.
[dramatic percussive tones]
♪ ♪
[drill whirring]
- [crying]
- Holy Father?
Would you teach me to pray?
- Start praying aloud.
Let me see how you do it.
- Blessed Virgin Mary,
give me the grace of becoming pregnant.
- Mm, prayer shouldn't be a list of requests, Esther.
It should be an occasion for understanding.
While we pray, we reflect
in the most elevated way we can
so that someone can whisper thoughts into our ears.
We call that someone God.
Or, in the present case, the Madonna of Lourdes.
- All right.
Then let me try again.
Blessed Virgin Mary,
God does not punish beauty,
as a person who is very dear to you once told me.
That phrase opened my eyes and...
it made me understand that perhaps,
by making a gift of beauty,
I might perhaps receive some in return.
And what if making a gift of my beauty meant
receiving the beauty that I so desire?
The beauty of new life,
of a little child?
- [whispering] Yes, now you're praying.
- What if it was an intolerable burden to me
to donate my beauty to the person
I promised to love in sickness and in health?
What if I wanted to donate my beauty somewhere else?
- If you give your beauty elsewhere,
you will not receive the beauty of a new life
but only sorrow
and the unbearable burden of guilt.
You know, Esther,
Spinoza set us
the most daunting challenge of them all.
He said, "He that loves God
does not demand that God should love us in return."
- I don't understand.
- I know.
But in time, you will.
- Holy Father,
the truth is,
I know to whom I'd like to donate my beauty.
I'd like--
- Now, Esther,
continue to pray in your head.
There are certain secrets you must share only with God.
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
[no audible dialogue]
♪ ♪
- [sobbing]
- Stop crying, Suree.
That's enough.
Believers don't cry!
That's not right!
It is time we stop crying at funerals.
- [crying]
- You don't believe.
Suree, you don't believe.
- Holy Father,
I brought you a gift to improve our relationship a little.
- Thanks.
These are supposed to be worse for you than real cigarettes.
- I was told that they are good for you.
- Doesn't matter.
It's a substitute for the real thing.
What I want, always, is the whole truth.
- Then you've come to the wrong place.
Holy Father, don't call me repetitive,
but when is your speech
to the cardinals going to take place?
- In due time. - Yes, but when?
- You really don't understand, do you?
- What am I supposed to understand?
- That I'm creating.
- What are you creating?
- Anticipation.
- Holy Father, shall we look into the Kurtwell case a little?
- Your Eminence, the answer is yes.
I want to look into the Kurtwell case
but from a broader point of view.
The individual case is always an indicator of a larger issue.
- I agree.
Let's pursue all the cases of pedophilia
that are infesting our Church.
- Let's widen the circle.
Let's prosecute all the cases of homosexuality
that are infesting our Church.
Let's root out all the homosexuals
and expel them
and prevent any new gay priests
from entering our Church.
Let's do it for real,
without exceptions and without hypocrisy.
- Holy Father, pedophilia and homosexuality
are two very different things.
- Two very different things that are both
equally unacceptable to the Catholic Church.
- It would be a war that would leave the ground
littered with corpses, Holy Father.
Do you want to know how many corpses would litter the ground?
- 2/3 of the clergy.
- Then...what becomes
of Mother Church's capacity for forgiveness?
- With our abuse of forgiveness,
we've become a laughingstock, Your Eminence.
As unreliable as some miserable little third world country.
- With your methods, on the other hand,
we are likely to become as reliable as, say,
North Korea.
- No.
You want to know what the difference is?
We don't imprison ours; we set them free.
We pardon every one of them.
One second later, we kick them out the door.
- All right, Holy Father, as you command.
- I have a question for you.
- Holy Father, I have a great many shortcomings,
but there can be no doubt about my heterosexuality.
Even if I can't bring you any direct testimony
on the matter.
- That wasn't the question.
- Oh, sorry. What was the question?
- Would you tell me about your calling?
- Holy Father, I'll tell you the truth.
If you expect me to tell you a tale
of blinding illuminations or dazzling conversions,
you are going to be disappointed.
Quite simply, I had a predisposition.
A predisposition to become a priest,
the way others have one to become
a painter or a cricket player.
What about you, Your Holiness?
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
It's for you.
- Holy Christ!
- If only I were.
- How did you get in here?
- With a duplicate of your keys.
- Now what do you want?
- Everything you were supposed to do but haven't done yet.
- I've tried.
But it's impossible.
That gentleman is the Pope.
He's the man of the greatest virtue
and rectitude on the planet,
and I've never been much of a seductress myself.
- Neither was the Virgin Mary.
But that didn't keep her from becoming
the most attractive and desired woman on Earth.
- But I'm just a good Catholic girl.
- Good Catholic girls,
especially the married ones,
don't cheat on their husbands.
But I didn't come here to threaten you,
nor to remind you of your sins.
You are an intelligent woman. You should know.
- What should I know?
- That you are beautiful, you are attractive,
and the Pope has a particular interest in you.
- He only cares about my sorrow.
Peter and I can't have children.
- That's not the way it is.
What I'm about to tell you is confidential,
eternally so.
Esther, the Holy Father's faith
isn't as solid as we like to think.
- What are you saying? - I insist.
Moreover, he's had dozens of girlfriends.
He's a loose man.
Your job is to seduce the Holy Father.
We will take care of everything else.
- I wouldn't know how to go about it.
And I don't want to wind up tangled
in a public scandal that would ruin my life.
- Silly girl.
There won't be any public scandal.
All that's needed is the threat of scandal
to turn things around.
- What things?
- The Holy Father intends to issue new measures
that could lead irreversibly to the extinction of the Church.
Do you understand what vastly significant stakes
we are talking about?
Me, you, all of us have the sacrosanct duty
to stop him, in God's name.
- But I could try to talk to him.
He respects me.
- [stifled giggles]
Sorry.
I was about to laugh, but I stopped myself,
because I have a certain class.
We seriously doubt that Pius XIII even respects God.
- You don't know him at all.
He's an extraordinary person.
- That's why you are so seductive, Esther.
Because you don't know a thing.
Now, go and seduce him.
- [sighs]
I don't want to sin anymore.
- If only that were possible, Esther.
If only.
- [sighs]
[all speaking Italian]
- Ah.
- [clears throat]
[electronic rock music]
♪ ♪
- Jump.
Jump.
♪ ♪
- Something odd has been happening
in the last few hours.
- Let's hear it.
- During confession,
for reasons that escape me,
people have suddenly started recounting
their exploits with women,
offering up the most intimate,
embarrassing details.
Strange, isn't it?
- Someone must be spreading a rumor
that the Pope is out to punish the homosexuals.
- Oh, yes, the famous calumnies of our little state.
- What if they weren't calumnies?
[music box tinkling]
- [laughs]
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
- Good night, Holy Father.
- Let's go in the bedroom.
- No.
- Where?
- Here.
- All right.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[both breathing heavily]
[both grunting]
♪ ♪
- [panting]
♪ ♪
- Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
Peter's successor has a specific grace to ask of you.
Now, right now, those two young people in their home,
Peter and Esther, have only one wish.
You must grant it to them.
You must.
You must. You must.
You must.
You must, must.
You must. You must!
You must. You must.
You must, please.
You must.
[both grunting]
♪ ♪
Amen.
[both panting]
♪ ♪
[light snoring]
- [whispering] They are taking their afternoon nap.
- [chuckles]
The fat one is snoring.
- Yes, she is Mother Letizia.
She's the metronome of sleep.
- [chuckles]
I made an important decision.
- What?
- You will go to New York
to investigate the Kurtwell case.
- Why do you want to punish me, Holy Father?
- This is no punishment; this is a promotion.
I trust you.
- Holy Father, spare me.
I'm a modest, limited man, believe me.
The Kurtwell case is something far too big for me,
beyond my scope.
- Quit selling yourself short.
You're going to New York.
You'll investigate.
You'll gather the necessary evidence,
and you'll put Kurtwell into my hands.
My papacy won't let the harm done to even a single child
slip away into indifference.
And you will help me, because I trust you...
blindly.
- Holy Father,
I'm a recluse.
I only know how to live inside these walls.
In all these years, I've left here only twice,
both times to go to the hospital.
I don't know how to cross the street.
I don't know how to get a hotel room.
I don't know how to order a meal in a restaurant.
I'm like those canaries in cages.
If you free them,
they die.
- You're afraid.
I was afraid, too,
before I accepted my destiny
as head of the Church.
- How do you overcome fear?
- By giving in
to the complex and unfathomable architecture
that God has designed for us.
[brooding music]
♪ ♪
[woman speaking Spanish]
♪ ♪
[wind whooshing]
♪ ♪
[bells tolling faintly]
[laid-back music]
♪ ♪
[Nada sings in Italian]
♪ ♪
[bright tone]
The Holy Father isn't in the Apostolic Palace.
Nobody knows where the pope is.
It is believed that the Holy Father...
is conducting an unseemly relationship with that woman.
What if I know all your secrets?
LENNY BELARDO: Your Eminence,
prepare the Sistine Chapel.
The time has come to address the cardinals.
Knock. Knock.
All of us cardinals were there at the conclave.
And now I'm the pope.
This pope has some moments of real and pure goodness.
Why were you crying?
My sister is dying.
This nun, Suree, is afraid to go back to her country
in Thailand, where probably before becoming a nun
she was like a prostitute. So she's afraid to go back.
And so he decides to help her, he decides to bring back
in the Vatican the body of the sister.
Voiello is a man that loves to present himself like somebody
very full of evil, but in reality Voiello,
he's a man of goodness. He helps somebody
that's less lucky than him.
His role brings him to be doomed to not talk with anybody.
So the only possible friend is this boy, Girolamo.
He can reveal his secrets just to Girolamo.
The relationship between Voiello and the pope
is a complex and different relationship.
You were supposed to be the pope of a compromise.
They argue, and they have some problems with each other.
A cardinal works in a collegial manner.
While a pope...
is an absolute sovereign.
You were supposed to share your sovereignty with my advice
and Spencer's!
Lenny says that he's the head of the church, the boss
of the church, because in the Vatican there is
no democracy. There is just a sovereign.
Lenny's a sort of pope very close to the old vision
of the church.
Lenny is very old in his ideas, but at the same time he's a man
of 47 years old. So he's also a modern man.
Sophia put in evidence the modern side of the character
of Lenny.
Holy Father, I beg your pardon. I really had no idea I was
in the men's bathroom.
Actually, this is neither the men's bathroom
nor the women's.
-This is the pope's bathroom. -I'm so sorry.
They're friends. So it's a character that's
very important to reveal to the audience another side
of Lenny.
The prime minister of Greenland is waiting for you.
(SPUTTERS)
The part of the character of Lenny is the character
of the boy.
I think that the condition of an orphan forces to be
a child also when he grows up.
So it was interesting to do a pope that's an orphan.
On Thursday, the Holy Father is scheduled to baptize
ninety children from all over Europe.
Must I really subject myself to such torture?
He doesn't love children because they remind to him
his condition of child.
She takes after you.
There's a war inside him between the need to be a child
and at the same time, there's the need to be an adult
because he has to lead one billion people.
Amen.