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jilipark There’s No Escape at the Movies
Faced with the chaotic unknown or the abjectly terrifyingjilipark, some turn to wine and others to snack food. There are even people who channel their stress in healthy, productive ways, speed walking or enjoying sound bath meditation. But I go to the movies.
That’s where I headed last weekend, desperate to hang onto a wisp of sanity in the run-up to the election. First in the queue: “Conclave,” an Oscar-bound movie set in the Vatican that promised to whisk me off far and away.
The movie opens with the untimely death of a beloved pope. With much pomp and ceremony, the world’s cardinals convene at the Vatican to elect his replacement. Ralph Fiennes, subtly formidable as ever, is Cardinal Lawrence, charged with overseeing the election. Besieged by doubt, both in his faith and in his capacity to manage what may be a contentious process, Lawrence approaches the task like an election administrator assigned to Pima County, Ariz. Bracing for a fight.
It looks to be a contest between Cardinal Tedesco, a conservative who wants the church to return to the Latin liturgy, and Cardinal Bellini, the designated favorite in Lawrence’s circle, a man who loudly insists he doesn’t want the job (of course he does) and that as a liberal who believes women should play a greater role in the Curia, he’ll never get elected anyway (but he thinks he should).
Is no election easy? Several third-party — that is, alternative — contenders quickly emerge. One is a Canadian cardinal with a shady past. Another is a Nigerian who would be the first pope from Africa but who also believes homosexuals should burn in hell. A dark horse surfaces in the form of a Mexican who had been secretly appointed by the pope as cardinal of Afghanistan.
“How many Catholics are there in Afghanistan?” Bellini asks, indignant. His candidacy now at risk, he starts lashing out at dissenters.
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