The Catholic Church remains a very important institution globally and in many countries can influence government policies and public opinion. Its doctrine on the ‘sanctity of life’ means it is against contraception, abortion and surrogacy.

Since its teachings on marriage only conceive of heterosexual partnerships it does not recognise gay marriage or accept gay couples should adopt. Transexuals are not acceptable either. In the global south, mostly in Latin America and Africa, with large Catholic populations this means family planning is severely hampered and repression of women’s rights to control their bodies. All this concern about policing women and gay bodies has been less evident when dealing with the numerous cases of its clergy’s sexual abuse. For many years it was covered up. Compensation and apologies have come very late.

So its policies negatively affect millions of lives. In the global North the Church has mobilised behind extreme right wing and mainstream conservative campaigns to defend family values. Traditional Catholics flocked to support Trump and are influential in Italy in support of Meloni’s reactionary policies against women, gays and trans people. Surrogacy is now punishable by big fines and imprisonment.

Radical Catholics too

However there has always been a radical wing within the Catholic Church. Many priests fought and died alongside guerrilla fighters in the Castroist insurgencies following the 1958 Cuban revolution. Some estimates put it as high as 800. Camillo Torres in Colombia died in this way. Bishop Romero in El Salvador was murdered by the fascist regime there. Nuns were also killed in El Salvador. Dr Sheila Cassidy was a devout Catholic and was tortured in Chile, she briefly became a nun. In Europe we have seen the phenomenon of worker priests who helped organise factory and community struggles. Today progressive Catholics work to support migrants in many countries. The experience of these radical Catholics shows that religion is not necessarily simply the ‘opium of the people’.

Conclave, the film of Robert Harris novel, about the traditional selection of a new Pope reflects the tensions between the reactionary and the more progressive wings of the Catholic Church.

The Conclave ABC

For the cinema goers unfamiliar with this bit of Catholic ritual you are given a crash course:

• the confinement of the cardinals inside the Vatican with no access with the media or the outside world
• voting taking place in the sublime surroundings of the Sistine Chapel under the eyes of Michelangelo’s painted figures on the ceiling
• secure daily transport in closed buses from the hotel where a special order of nuns look after their needs
• prayers asking for divine guidance,
• the lack of any hustings or discussion on who should be the candidate and why they deserve support
• repeated ballots until a victor emerges, two in the morning and two in the afternoon
• and the ceremonial paper balloting finishing with the white smoke emerging from the Sistine Chapel once there is a winner

In the last hundred years the average papal conclave lasted around 3 days and 8 ballots. Although in 1268 one lasted 34 months!

Politics always surfaces

Of course the film shows that the selection has very little to do with divine guidance and everything to do with the material political and ideological currents existing within the Church. Just as in political parties or totalitarian systems that ban any open tendencies or transparent democracy, politics re-emerges through informal groupings, intense discussion, backroom deals and alliances. Underhand dealing and dirty tricks are present too. So for example the conservative wing manages to block the rise of the African cardinal by exposing a relationship he had with a woman while younger (Catholic priests are supposed to remain celibate). Even the way this is done requires Machiavellian manoeuvres that involve ensuring the woman, now a nun, is assigned as one of the sisters servicing the cardinals. Like conservative leadership candidates a papal leadership contender will bolster his coalition team by offering plum Vatican posts to his supporters.

Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the master of ceremonies in charge of the process. In an archaic process with limited democracy this gives him quite a lot of power, which he exercises to the extent of paving the way for the eventual winner. He delivers an interesting definition of who should make a good pope which I think can be partly applied to leaders on the left too – particularly some Leninists who are so certain about everything and lack any fibre of self-criticism:

Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts. And let him grant us a Pope who sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on

Sex and gender intervene

Women are excluded from exercising any real power in the Catholic Church since they are not allowed to become priests and subsequently cardinals. Ironically in this Conclave they play an important role in the ultimate result. As the mother superior (Isabella Rossellini) says:

 Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears.

 The final twist in the film revolves around a question of gender identity. Perhaps Robert Harris and the director are making a point about how the Church cannot forever keep women as second class citizens.

Visually the film captures the beauty of the architecture, the frescos and the ceremony. The slow pace of the film and whispered tones of many conversations adds to the sense of the viewer being there. The film telescopes the last phase of the conclave whereas the book spun out the drama about the voting. Ralph Fiennes is superb in the lead role, Stanley Tucci plays the liberal cardinal and John Lithgow the conservative one.

Divisions continue today

After the conservative reign of Pope Benedict the Argentinian Francesco was seen as a bit of a reformer but has disappointed the more radical reformers.  Politico comments:

 Despite beginning his papacy on a fiery platform of universal tolerance, he has often caved to pressure from conservatives, most notably watering down a landmark declaration on same-sex blessings earlier this year. His own stance on that issue was muddied further in June when he was caught — twice — privately using the homophobic slur “frociaggine.

Nevertheless the conservative wing of the Church is still outraged at how his big Synod on Synodality (a long internal conference involving clergy and laity) will bring in reforms unwelcome to them. The German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a Catholic conservative heavyweight has stated that the assembly’s opening ceremony, which listed several new kinds of sin, was a “checklist of woke and gender ideology.”

So the film is a good introduction to what is going on in the Catholic Church at the moment and is an enjoyable enough drama to spend a couple of hours with.

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