LENNY BELARDO: Everyone must learn
that it takes suffering
to find God.
BELARDO: You will go to New York to investigate
the Kurtwell case.
Why do you want to punish me, Holy Father?
BELARDO: This is a promotion.
Let's prevent any new gay priests
from entering our church.
CARDINAL VOIELLO: I had found a way
of destroying the Holy Father,
but I am not going to do it.
BELARDO: Peter and Esther have only one wish.
You must grant it to them.
BELARDO: I want fanatics for God.
Because fanaticism...
is love.
[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[cutlery clinking]
[thud]
- [pained groaning]
[silence]
- Edgar!
- What did he die of?
- The same thing our Church is going to die of.
Old age.
[rope creaking, chain clinking]
[dramatic piano music]
♪ ♪
[rumbling, thudding]
♪ ♪
- [speaking indistinctly]
Et apostolicae fidei cultoribus.
[wind whistling]
♪ ♪
- What is it about that statuette
that you find so sensual?
- I'd prefer not to delve into my psyche.
Holy Father, donations have declined.
Revenues from religious taxes,
which our bishops and dioceses depend on for their survival,
have declined.
Tourist visits to the Vatican have declined,
greatly reducing the influx of funds to Vatican City.
There is not much that the Vatican Bank can do.
Our days of freewheeling finances are over.
Changes in banking regulations
mean that our hands are now tied.
If we continue on this course,
we will be forced
to start selling off our artistic patrimony
simply to survive.
- The faithful will return.
It's a natural cycle.
- For now, the faithful are not returning.
And small but dangerous enclaves of Catholic fundamentalism
are starting to spring up,
just like in Islam.
- Islam has more followers than the Catholic Church.
- Don't you find it a burden to take home the responsibility
of such risky and unpopular decisions?
- [sighs]
No.
- Your Holiness, who are you, really?
[instrumental rock version of "All Along the Watchtower"]
♪ ♪
[door clicking open]
[creaking]
[somber electronic music]
♪ ♪
[static crackling]
♪ ♪
[chair scrapes]
♪ ♪
- [speaking Latin]
[soft instrumental music]
[both moaning]
[all moaning and panting]
♪ ♪
- [screaming]
- Pushing! Pushing, okay! - [screaming]
[nurses speaking indistinctly]
- Okay, Esther. - Very good.
- Push more! Pushing!
Very good. Very good.
Okay, Esther! - We're almost there.
- Okay! Okay! Keep pushing!
- [screaming] - Keep pushing now!
Okay! - [screaming]
- Okay! Okay.
[Esther panting and shouting]
[baby cries]
♪ ♪
[footsteps approaching]
♪ ♪
[gentle instrumental music]
♪ ♪
[chairs rumbling, scraping]
- ♪ Kyrie eleison ♪
all: ♪ Christe eleison ♪
♪ Kyrie eleison ♪
♪ Pater noster qui es in caelis ♪
♪ Sanctificetur ♪
♪ Nomen tuum ♪
♪ Adveniat regnum tuum ♪
♪ Fiat voluntas tua ♪
♪ Sicut in caelo ♪
♪ Et in terra ♪
♪ Panem nostrum quotidianum ♪
♪ Da nobis hodie ♪ [baby cries]
♪ Et dimitte nobis debita nostra ♪
♪ Sicut et nos dimittimus ♪
♪ Debitoribus nostris ♪
♪ Et ne nos inducas ♪
♪ In tentationem ♪
♪ Sed libera ♪
♪ Nos a mal ♪
- [speaking Spanish]
[both speaking Italian]
[scoffs]
- [speaking Spanish]
[melancholy piano music]
- [speaks Italian]
[dramatic percussive tones]
♪ ♪
[motorcycle horn blares]
- [gasps]
[breathing heavily]
♪ ♪
[distant traffic noises]
♪ ♪
[babies crying]
♪ ♪
[babies crying]
- Flowers.
This is for the baby.
- Oh, you shouldn't have, Holy Father.
- It's a Bible that belonged to Thomas Jefferson,
the president of the United States.
But it's like new.
He never opened it.
We certainly can't blame Jefferson.
The Bible isn't light reading.
- [chuckles]
We named him Pius.
- A name for a bird.
He'll fly high.
- Do you want to hold him, Your Holiness?
- That really would be an unusual experience for me.
- And for Peter and I, it would be an honor.
[Pius cooing]
- Pleasure to make your acquaintance,
Mr. Pius the XIV.
[Pius fussing]
[breathes deeply]
[inhales deeply] Oh...
it's a pity we can't remember
what we smelled like when we were babies.
I do remember
what my parents smelled like.
He takes after you.
- But if you look closely, he also takes a little--
- No, he's a very good-looking baby.
He resembles his mother.
- Holy Father.
[Esther shrieks] [Pius crying]
- Forgive me. I'm such a fool.
My hands only know how to bless people.
- It's all right, Holy Father.
Nothing happened. - Such an idiot.
- We all have to get used to new things, Holy Father.
Nothing happened. - Yes.
Yes, you're right, Peter.
Valente, was there something you wanted to tell me?
- Holy Father, the Italian prime minister
is waiting for you in the Vatican.
- Of course.
It slipped my mind.
[sighs]
[bright guitar music]
♪ ♪
Esther, I must go.
In my head, I'll be at this audience,
but in my heart, I'll never have left this room.
♪ ♪
It's surprising to see how a young woman,
just moments after having a child,
can be transformed into a mother.
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
♪ ♪
[both speaking Italian]
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
[woman singing indistinctly]
♪ ♪
- Are you asleep, Holy Father?
- No, Mr. Prime Minister, I'm praying for you.
- That's very thoughtful of you.
And thanks very much for giving me this audience
after just nine months.
- I didn't think you'd be running the country this long.
I said to myself, "Why bother?"
But I was wrong.
Well...
how is this Italy of ours doing?
- Much better.
Thanks to me. - You think so?
- Yeah. - I think just the opposite.
You wanted to do much better.
Perhaps you should keep firmly in mind
this list of requests.
I jotted it down in a hurry just a few minutes ago.
If there's anything I've left off,
I can certainly add it to the list,
and I'll make sure you receive it promptly.
- "Greater assistance to Catholic families.
No to common-law marriages."
- Mm.
- "No to gay marriages." - Mm.
- "More money to Catholic schools.
"Further tax and banking benefits to the Holy See.
"Absolute prohibition of abortion in all cases.
Absolute prohibition of divorce in all cases."
- Mm.
- "No to any temptation to accept euthanasia.
Restriction on the religious freedom of Muslims and Hindus."
- Mm.
- "A reopening of discussions of the Lateran Pacts.
"A full review of the territorial boundaries
of the Vatican State."
[laughs]
This last request really is remarkable,
I have to admit.
I didn't know that you had expansionistic ambitions.
But I was told before coming
that this new Pope is a very funny man.
- Did they also inform you
that this new Pope was a man
far more intelligent than you?
- No.
Because it isn't true.
Do you know what the difference is
between me and you, Holy Father?
- Let's hear.
- The difference is that I was elected
with 41% of the votes.
That 41% exists.
You were elected by God.
And it's not a sure thing that God exists.
- Fine.
There's another element worthy of your consideration.
Just in case God does happen to exist,
do you know how long it would take Him
to wipe that 41%
off the face of the Earth?
- [chuckles]
And where will God eradicate that 41%?
At the polls in the next election?
Or in their homes while they're watching TV?
Or perhaps in their sleep?
- [chuckles]
At the polls
in the next election.
And what's more, I,
as the Vicar of Christ,
would be happy to help God eradicate that 41%.
[both chuckle]
And if you don't stop playing the idiot,
I'm gonna be forced to prove to you that God does exist.
- Let me explain something to you, Holy Father.
- Please. - Your demands
might have some basis in fact at any other point in history.
At a point in history when the Church
was stronger than it is right now,
the Italian political equation would have been obliged
to take your demands under serious consideration,
the way it always has in the past.
But now let us briefly analyze your papacy, Holy Father.
In the past nine months,
you have never shown yourself to the faithful.
You have not recited a single Angelus in St. Peter's Square.
You haven't communicated with anyone.
You have simply retreated into your palace on the hill,
and you have threatened and terrorized the faithful,
through your terse and telegraphic communiqués
in "L'Osservatore Vaticano,"
with obscurantist and retrograde theses.
The result has been that, according to a number
of highly respected studies,
Italian Catholics have turned away from the Church
en masse.
This new development not only allows me
to ignore your requests,
but it gives me an even greater opportunity
finally to modernize Italy.
Without fear of retaliation
or the risk of losing support among voters,
I can review the colossal fraud
of the eight per thousand Church tax,
finally imposing punitive taxes on the dioceses,
and, most important of all,
I can finally free the country from the pork barrels,
stumbling blocks, and vetoes of the Holy Roman Church
in the areas of euthanasia, common-law marriages,
gay couples, abortion, scientific research.
To cut a long story short, Holy Father,
thanks to you, I can start a revolution.
[smooth rock music]
- A very persuasive speech.
- Ah, I'm glad we are finally beginning to talk sense.
- Persuasive and stupid.
I might add, like every politician's speech,
and what's more...
unrealizable.
- Unrealizable?
- Mm-hmm.
- We shall see about that.
- Now, if you'd care to listen to me,
I'll show you that God exists
and how God and I can annihilate that 41% of the population
that makes you feel so cheerful and full of yourself.
- I'm very eager to hear what you have to say, Holy Father.
- I'm glad.
You see, Mr. Prime Minister, in the '60s,
the young people that protested in the streets
spouted all kind of heresies, all except one:
power to the imagination.
In that, they were correct.
The only problem was, they had no imagination.
And neither do you.
God and I have plenty.
God and I are simply dripping with imagination.
Now, just try and imagining something with me.
Hmm? - Mm.
- In six months, Italy will hold a general election,
and you will try to maintain or increase
your 41% share of the electorate.
And right now, everything indeed points
to your ability to maintain that 41%.
- Yeah. - But just imagine.
A few weeks before the election, there comes an announcement.
Pope Pius XIII has decided to appear in public
for the very first time
to talk to the Italian Catholics.
[gasps]
What morbid curiosity!
The whole world is dying of curiosity.
And it is absolutely to be expected.
It's normal.
We all want to see
that which is hidden.
We all want to stare the forbidden in the face.
Pius XIII appears,
and so do his beautiful blue eyes
and his soft, round mouth.
A dazzling image,
so dazzling, it blinds people.
In other words, a powerful, an evocative image,
not unlike that of Christ.
But Pius XIII doesn't merely dazzle.
He offers reassurance as well
with a magnificent speech,
full of quotations in Latin.
He tells them that they, the faithful,
must not be afraid.
And why would they be afraid,
with a Pope as handsome and as reassuring as Christ?
Last of all, just a few short weeks before the election,
the Pope says just two words:
Non Expedit.
Do you know what that means?
- No. - No, of course you don't.
You're far too young.
The Non Expedit was first issued by Pius IX in 1868.
It was eliminated by Benedict XV in 1919.
But guess what I can do.
What I,
who am not answerable to 41% of the Italians
but only to God, who, by the way,
doesn't express His displeasures on social network
if I make a mistake.
Guess what I can do.
I can restore the Non Expedit.
The Catholics will rush to Google those words.
What do they mean?
The Non Expedit means
that the Holy Father decrees
it is unacceptable for Catholics to vote
in the Italian elections.
And do you know
what the surveys that you commissioned tell us?
They tell us that the number of Italians
who identify themselves as Catholics
are 87.8% of the population.
Now, you may say to me, "They could simply disobey you."
True.
But while a Catholic might disobey the Pope,
they'd never disobey Christ.
I'm already the former,
but believe me, if I want to,
I can have myself accredited as the latter as well,
and when I do,
you'll lose your election.
Here's how it works.
Since you get 31% of your vote from the Catholic electorate...
Ah, you'd wind up with a mere 10%.
- I wouldn't be so sure of those numbers if I were you.
- Mr. Prime Minister...
Take a look in this mirror.
What do you see?
- Two young men,
one of whom is dressed in a slightly odd style.
- I, on the other hand,
see two media events.
One has already taken place.
And that's you.
The other is about to happen.
Now, having set out
to prove to you the existence of God...
[clears throat]
I believe I'm done.
- But in that case, why... [clears throat]
Why haven't you appeared in public yet?
- Because...
there's still no need.
[bright guitar music]
♪ ♪
[camera shutters clicking]
- Holy Father, would you like me to see what I can do
to mend the relations with the Italian government?
- He's bluffing. - Who?
- The young man in a hurry speaking on TV right now.
He's selling smoke and mirrors.
He won't do a thing he says.
- Holy Father, I have read the draft bills
that have already been approved by the various commissions.
These people are deadly serious.
The revision of the eight per thousand Church tax
would threaten the survival of the Italian bishops.
- Would that be such a bad thing?
What do we care? You and I are the Holy See.
[chuckles]
The Italian bishops can take care of themselves.
- Holy Father, I beg you, this is no laughing matter.
- Rest easy. He's bluffing.
- Holy Father, believe me,
political awareness is an archetypal emotion
for the Secretary of State.
- Soccer mania is an archetypal emotion
for the Secretary of State.
[chuckles]
I wanted to you let you know
I've been working hard on something new.
- On what?
- A measure forbidding priests
from giving absolution in the confessional
to women who have had abortions.
It's a kind of soft...
disguised form of excommunication.
- Holy Father, we will wake up and find women of the world,
led by the FEMEN,
rushing the walls of the Vatican,
hammers in hand, bent on destruction.
- Fine, and we'll rebuild those walls taller...
and finer.
- Old and unreliable Rorschach tests,
orders to investigate intrusively
into the pasts of aspiring priests,
young men paid bounties to lure those aspiring priests
into compromising sexual situations
as soon as they're allowed out into the world.
That's what I read in the directive
I found on my desk this morning,
drawn up by who knows what renegade underling
while I was in Honduras.
- Drawn up by me.
- Every candidate for priesthood takes a vow of chastity.
Their sexual predilections are irrelevant.
- Every candidate for priesthood takes a vow of chastity
and none of them respect it.
That's the truth.
- Well, I'm telling you no.
Lenny, I'm not okay with this.
[somber violin music]
- I didn't go looking for my parents.
Instead, I went back to the orphanage
in order to be with my friend Andrew Dussolier,
who was all I had left in the world.
That was the beginning.
You owe me, as a friend,
and as a man of the cloth who acknowledges my authority,
you must do what I ask.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[birds chirping, insects humming]
[basketball bouncing]
- [exhales]
[Jefferson Airplane's "Blues from an Airplane"]
[bluesy rock music]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Do you know ♪
- ♪ How sad it is to be a man alone ♪
♪ ♪
- ♪ I feel so ♪
- ♪ Solitary being in my home ♪
- ♪ Without you ♪
♪ Don't know what to do ♪
♪ And I don't know where you go ♪
♪ ♪
♪ I can see ♪
- ♪ My life is meant to fall apart someday ♪
- ♪ Got not girl ♪
♪ So I got no world ♪
♪ And I got no words left to say ♪
♪ ♪
[music stops]
[net swishes, ball bouncing]
- Here you are: Sanchez, Angelo.
My superiors have determined
that you are neither suited for nor worthy of
the priesthood.
You are prohibited from requesting admission
to a seminary,
in your home diocese or in any other,
for seven years.
- Why?
- Put in simpler terms,
the sexual disturbances afflicting you
are unacceptable in terms of our standards.
[tapping]
- What do you want?
- Your resignation.
Otherwise...
our order will threaten a schism.
[tapping resumes]
[light percussive tones]
[rapid tones]
- A schism?
Just try it.
I'll strip you of all you have.
Everything.
Your beds, your tunics, your underpants,
all those wonderful monasteries you have
in the most wonderful, loveliest places on Earth,
because all that belongs to me.
Are you ready to live on the streets
like Saint Francis of Assisi?
Are you ready to sleep on the ground,
kicked and spat upon by junkies
and homeless people and drunks?
I'm ready to wage a war without end against you.
Are you ready to wage that war,
armed with nothing but bottomless poverty?
[tense dramatic music]
♪ ♪
I didn't think so.
In that case, stop talking bullshit
and get yourselves some shoes,
because the air in here is unbreathable.
[both speaking Italian]
- [gasps]
[indistinct chatter]
- Cardinal Dussolier.
I know you, but you don't know me.
I'm Contessa Emma Meraviglia, the wife of General Meraviglia.
- [speaking Italian]
- You know, I don't like seeing you all on your own.
- [chuckles] Uh, I'm accustomed to it, Signora.
- That's a bad custom to get into.
My girlfriends would compete to keep you company,
and so would I.
In any case, my husband and I will be hosting a party
Thursday at our villa.
If you are at loose ends, please come.
It would be an honor for my husband and me.
- Okay, thank you. I'll--I'll keep it in mind.
- Bye.
[light piano music playing]
♪ ♪
- My name is Angelo Sanchez.
I was born in Alicante to a family of manual laborers,
and I am not a homosexual.
I had such a simple dream: to serve God.
You murdered my dream.
You are nothing more than a pathetic,
miserable, cowardly murderer.
[people murmuring]
[dishes clattering]
[melancholy string music]
♪ ♪
[Angelo sobs]
♪ ♪
[choir vocalizing]
♪ ♪
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
[somber music]
♪ ♪
I-I could have been an excellent priest.
- Yeah, you could have.
- [crying]
- I want to go home.
- What do you mean, home?
We're both orphans.
- You too? - Me too.
I was abandoned by my parents
when I was just three years old.
Children are so lovely when they're three years of age.
How could anyone abandon a three-year-old?
Where do you find the nerve?
- I never knew you were an orphan too.
- Well, now you know.
- Does Lenny know? - No.
And he never will.
- Why not?
- [sighs]
Because...
you don't steal the stage from the Pope.
And you don't interfere with his sorrow.
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
[doors thud]
[distant chanting]
♪ ♪
[choir singing indistinctly]
♪ ♪
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
[music stops]
[Roberto Murolo's "Era de Maggio"]
[somber guitar music]
♪ ♪
- [singing in Italian]
♪ ♪
[bright tone]
CARDINAL DUSSOLIER: Who are you, Lenny?
Have you never experienced pity?
DUSSOLIER: I can't take it anymore.
I want to go home.
The pope is experiencing a moment of weakness.
SISTER MARY: If you need to have him sign a document,
this would be the right time.
Forgive me, Lord,
for I cannot continue to look on
at the destruction of the Holy Roman Church.
LENNY BELARDO: Pius XIII is a total failure.
DON TOMMASO: Your Holiness, what do you intend to do?
I intend to start a revolution.
PAOLO SORRENTINO: The only possible revolution
that he can do is a conservative revolution.
From this day forward, everything that was wide open
is gonna be closed.
This pope isn't afraid to lose the faithful
if they've been even slightly unfaithful.
And that means this pope does not negotiate.
He decides to be very close to tradition
of the church.
SORRENTINO: In the Middle Age, that was how
the popes dressed up.
(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
I love God...
because it's so painful to love human beings.
SORRENTINO: Voiello listens to these words.
In that moment, he understands that it says two things
about the condition of a priest.
I'm incapable of withstanding the heartbreak of love
because I'm unhappy. Like all priests.
LORENZO MIELI: Voiello has a lot of vices.
But at the same time, he has one virtue.
He knows what love is.
SORRENTINO: He changes his mind, and he decides
to love more than hate the pope.
You were right. Your pope really is a saint.
SORRENTINO: Dussolier is the best friend of Lenny.
He's been like him, an orphan,
raised by Sister Mary.
SORRENTINO: They're very close to each other.
But at the same time, they are very different.
You're my best friend and I don't understand you.
Why don't you wanna talk?
I only wanna talk about things that I understand.
He represents the opposite of what Lenny is.
MIELI: He desperately wants freedom
while Lenny likes rules.
He refuses the idea to be a hero.
He knows that he's incapable.
MIELI: Lenny at one point tries to force him
to accept responsibilities.
Every candidate for priesthood takes a vow of chastity.
Their sexual predilections are irrelevant.
Lenny, I'm not okay with this.
You must do what I ask.
And this leads to dramatic consequences.