The recently released movie Conclave has garnered substantial acclaim. It’s surprising that a film focused on aged men (cardinals), sequestered in the Vatican City to elect a new pope, could enthrall many moviegoers.
Conclave, however, is not the first popular film about the election of a pope. The Shoes of the Fisherman, released decades ago in 1968 and mostly forgotten (but available on YouTube), similarly centers around a papal conclave.
The two movies have much in common. Both their plots incorporate secrecy, intrigue, doubt in faith, tension between religious tradition and progressive populism, a surprising selection of a new pope, and concern for global peace. One might consider Conclave a sequel of the Shoes of the Fisherman. The Shoes of the Fisherman, however, was arguably more prophetic and remarkably predictive of actual occurrences. It was also unrealistically optimistic.
The man who becomes pope in The Shoes of the Fisherman is a Ukrainian bishop, recently released from a long imprisonment in a Siberian workcamp by the Premier of the Soviet Union and quickly made cardinal by an ailing pope. He is the first non-Italian candidate elected pope in over four centuries. In the film, this new pope is hurriedly pulled into international matters, and takes a radical step to prevent a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union, China, and the United States.
Now consider the similarities between The Shoes of the Fisherman and actual historical events around the papacy.
Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected pope in 1978, and assumed the papal title of John Paul II. He was an unexpected choice, and the first non-Italian elected pope in over four centuries. John Paul II was from Poland, which was still under Soviet control at the time. Historians hold that John Paul II, a strong supporter of the nonviolent, anti-authoritarian Solidarity movement in Poland, helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
While John Paul II was a charismatic pope who visited 129 countries during his reign, he was also traditional, and stifled progressive thinking and dissent within the Catholic Church. His conservatism further centralized an insular Vatican bureaucracy.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, our current pope who adopted the name of Pope Francis, is also non-Italian, and the first cardinal from the Americas (Argentina) to become pope. Francis, like John Paul II, is well travelled and involved in international affairs. Recently on December 12, Francis met with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine, to help seek the end of the slaughter of Gazans and promote peace in the region.
Francis is a compassionate and relatively open-minded pope, who welcomes folks that have been alienated from the Catholic Church. He is also dedicated to social justice and seeks betterment for impoverished people.
Yet, despite such qualities, Francis has displayed his limits. Given current international troubles, the failings of Francis may prove to be the greatest of any modern pope. The irony of this situation is profound.
On October 4, 2020, Francis publicized an encyclical (pastoral letter) on peace, titled “Fratelli Tutti.” The document is a treatise on the societal common good. Its overriding message is that societal common good no longer begins and ends at the borders of a single nation. Because of our technological advancement and the international scope of economy, disease, and climate change, we are a global society with a global common good; nations are neighbors without borders.
The encyclical also views humanity’s technological advancement and globalization of human activity as having profound impact on the morality of modern military force. To quote “Fratelli Tutti”:
“…the enormous and growing possibilities offered by new technologies, have granted war an uncontrollable destructive power over great numbers of innocent civilians. The truth is that ‘never has humanity had such power over itself, yet nothing ensures that it will be used wisely.’ We can no longer think of war as a solution because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits.”
“Fratelli Tutti” contends that modern military violence, when initiated, is ever at the edge of escalation. The world has become too small and modern weaponry too uncontainable for any war to be truly won. Nuclear threat constantly hovers over all of us. Francis’s encyclical logically concludes there can no longer be a “just war.”
Less than two years after “Fratelli Tutti” was published, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. When the thinking of “Fratelli Tutti” was sorely needed, Francis made an exception to its application. The pope threw the notion of global nonviolence out the window.
In May 2022, the Vatican Secretary of State announced that countries supplying military weapons to Ukraine was morally acceptable. On September 22, 2022, Francis personally reiterated this position to news media.
In effect, Francis, an internationally prominent voice for peace, was supporting an escalation of warfare.
There was wide support for Ukraine to defend itself; few nations doubted that Russia’s invasion was unjustified. However, there were also serious questions on whether Ukraine could ultimately fend off such a powerful opponent, what the impact would be on the Ukrainian populace and infrastructure in trying to do so, and how likely the conflict would escalate and how far. These were questions Francis could have voiced as a proponent of nonviolence, rather than expressing moral armament of Ukraine.
Perhaps Ukraine should have capitulated early in the conflict with Russia. Instead, warring has prevailed. The cost for Ukraine has been enormous.
On December 8, 2024, President Zelenskyy reported that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 370,000 wounded since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
On October 21, 2024, the United Nations reported that 11,973 civilians had been killed in the conflict and almost 26,000 injured. Substantial destruction of housing and infrastructure had been experienced by a number of towns and cities in Ukraine. Approximately 7.2 million Ukrainians have needed humanitarian aid just this year alone.
Meanwhile, the Russian-Ukraine conflict is escalating. Thousands of North Korean soldiers have joined Russia’s invasion. On November 19, 2024, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was “lowering its threshold” to potentially use nuclear weapons in response to certain “conventional attacks”: a not-so-subtle threat to NATO nations assisting Ukraine.
All this tragedy and mounting danger confirm the arguments articulated in “Fratelli Tutti.” If only the encyclical’s author had taken them to heart!
There is a common underlying theme in the Conclave and The Shoes of the Fisherman films: how powerful institutions can become self-serving ends in themselves. The Roman Catholic Church, and especially the Vatican, among the longest-lasting institutions in history, have experienced this phenomenon. The phenomenon can also apply to nations, corporations, political parties, and economic systems, to name some other institutions, and all of which were intended to serve humanity, rather than subdue it.
Christianity, in its initial stage, was more of a movement than an organized religion. It was originally referred to as “the Way.”
Has humanity not lost its way? And can it not survive only by seeking the path for peace?
Scott Fina was once in a seminary program for the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers and later helped them launch an international development office, where he worked for 15 years. The office had projects in 44 countries around the world, and he got a sense of how Catholicism was experienced in different countries. He and the Catholic authorities have since parted ways.