You are all talking about miracles, awakenings, tricks, deception,
resurrection, the second coming of Christ.
Nonsense, all of it, which the Holy See unequivocally rejects.
The photograph that sparked your imagination is from two years ago.
Someone wanted to play a practical joke on us.
A joke in rather bad taste.
Lies, Sofia, lies !
We are certain that the intensive care room at the Venice hospital is empty.
- Pius XIII is no longer there. - I deny it categorically.
So what became of him, then ? Did he meet the same end as Francis II ?
That is a deliberate provocation.
And the Holy See never responds to provocations. Thank you !
THE NEW POPE Episode 9
How am I ?
Dazzling.
I missed you.
I am and always will be your friend.
This is comforting.
Are you nervous ?
When I want, Gutierrez, I know how to take the stage.
I know.
BRANNOX ONE OF US !
The girls who snubbed us. The boys who deserted us.
The strangers who ignored us. The parents who misunderstood us.
The employers who rejected us. The mentors who doubted us.
The bullies who beat us. The siblings who mocked us.
The friends who abandoned us.
The conformists who excluded us.
The kisses we were denied because no one saw us.
They were all too busy turning their gaze elsewhere,
while I was directing my gaze at you.
Only at you.
Because I am one of you.
POPE BRANNOX THANK YOU
Sorrow has no hierarchy.
Suffering is not a sport. There is no final ranking.
Tormented by acne and shyness,
by stretch marks and discomfort, by baldness and insecurity,
by anorexia and bulimia, by obesity and diversity,
reviled for the color of our skin, our sexual orientation,
our empty wallets, our physical impairments,
our arguments with our elders, our inconsolable weeping,
the abyss of our insignificance, the caverns of our lost,
the emptiness inside us, the recurring incurable thought of ending it all,
nowhere to rest, nowhere to stand, nothing to belong to.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Yes, that is how we felt.
And just like you, I remember it all.
But it no longer matters, that the world took issue whit us.
For now, it is us who shall take issue with the world.
We will no longer tolerate being named as problem.
Because in point of fact they are the problem, we are the solution.
We who have been betrayed and abandoned,
rejected and misunderstood, put aside and diminished.
"There is no place for you here", they told us with their silence.
"Then where is our place ?", we implore them with our silence.
We never received that replied. But now we know, yes.
We know our place.
Our place is here.
Our place is the Church.
Cardinal Biffi said it first, and in an astonishing and simple way:
"We are all miserable wretches whom God brought together
to form a glorious Church."
Yes, we are all miserable wretches.
Yes, we are all the same,
and yes, we are the forgotten ones,
but no longer.
From this day forth, we shall no longer being forgotten,
I assure you.
They will remember us, because we are the Church.
What's wrong ?
Nothing.
Second thoughts ?
- I just don't understand. - Understand what ?
What it is we want.
Lenny's body.
That's what we want.
Dead or alive.
We won't rest until we find his body.
Why ?
Because for me it's like the body of Christ.
Isn't the same for you ?
You must realize that, if you go through with it,
you probably won't be allowed to keep working here.
So it's not a good idea to go to the police.
A good idea is one that minimizes damages and maximizes profits.
Outside of here they call it capitalism.
But we've been practicing it since the time of the catacombs.
Why did you do it ?
You told me that true punishment
isn't served in prison, but rather in one's soul.
I got to thinking though
that prison is the perfect place to wrestle with one's soul.
So let's archive the entire incident and get back to work, Sofia.
No.
I have decided to resign.
- I'm leaving. - But why ?
Please Eminence, don't make me say it.
You are the most intelligent man in the world.
I am sure you can imagine why.
Why do you all make the same mistake ?
What's that ?
Sooner or later, you all fall in love.
VENTOTENE, LAZIO, ITALY
ALTIERO SPINELLI SCHOOLHOUSE
In the Christian Martyrology there are 9 900 saints and beati.
I won't pray to any of them, I'll only pray to you.
You are the only saint I have met, who cares about the others !
Let's stick to facts.
The Caliph,
presumably using the refugee community on the island of Ventotene,
has taken six elementary school children hostage
as well as their teacher, Don Antonio.
A good priest, Girolamo. A good priest, I swear.
But you know that, I've spent my life gathering information,
but now you are surely better informed than me.
Let's get to the point.
I ask you with all my strength: free them.
Free them all and all unharmed, they're children.
They are innocent.
They're saints, they're beautiful like you.
Please, do with me what you will, but let the children go.
I would have much preferred our first encounter
to have been under more pleasant circumstances.
Instead, we are burdened with a difficult and urgent mission.
We have six children and a priest to save.
- The police... - This is not a job for the police.
This is a job for the Church.
Do you know who was more afraid that I would wake up than you ?
- Who ? - The caliph.
Let's analyze the situation, Your Holiness.
I've fallen into a coma, and I become a living saint.
We witness the first signs of a Catholic fanaticism.
Until now, fanaticism has been the exclusive prerogative of the Caliph.
He feels we have usurped his territory and so he attacks us.
He's afraid that I have woken up, so he ups his game
and strikes at the thing I love most: children.
But he is not afraid that you have woken up.
He is afraid you've risen from the dead.
In which case, you're not merely an infidel,
but as you would be the Antichrist for us,
for him you would be Iblis, the devil, and there is no dealing with the devil.
That is precisely what I want. He's gonna have to deal with me.
The Caliph doesn't know for sure if I've risen from the dead or not.
He has doubts.
And doubt, as Voiello says, is a weapon.
But we have a secret, a certainty:
I have come back.
And our certainty is not a weapon, it's a bomb.
No one is interested in having that bomb explode.
Which is why we can force him to release the children.
I don't understand what you plan to do.
I plan to let the caliph know that I am no longer in a coma.
He knows if I show myself to the world,
I will rob him of his monopoly on fanaticism.
I can create a billion Catholic fanatics in a week.
The Caliph knows that, that's why he reacted so erratically.
If I don't show myself to the world,
he can carry on dreaming his delirious dreams.
It will be up to him to decide.
But if he doesn't want me to show myself,
he's gonna have to let those children and their teacher go immediately.
What do you think ?
I think that we are the Church and we must act like the Church.
We must kneel down and pray for six children and a priest,
while the forces of law and order devise a plan to liberate them
without leaving any dead bodies on the ground.
And that is what we shall do, Lenny.
That is the middle way.
You are the Pope and you establish the line.
I will submit to your will.
That night that you wept over your brother Adam's tomb,
you told him God doesn't like you.
How would you know that ?
Did you think you were alone ?
I was there, with you, John.
John, you're gonna have to resign yourself to believing in me.
Now that you realized what I am !
Free them now !
Brother cardinals...
I've come back.
This meeting here today is to be our secret.
If you reveal to anyone that I have returned,
I will know how to punish you.
Do you remember, brother cardinals,
when I told you that the faithful have to come to us through a narrow door,
that we would not go to them ?
You were all rather skeptical.
And that is exactly what happened.
And it is why I want you all now, in absolute silence,
with your eyes closed.
With your eyes closed to concentrate
and ask my forgiveness and say to yourselves:
"It will never happen again that I, a wretched man,
will fail to believe in Pius XIII."
We're always saying that "We guide people's hearts."
But what does that mean ?
The heart, in and of itself, as I know perfectly well,
is nothing more than an organ that beats.
Sometimes it beats faster, sometimes it beats slower.
Sometimes it stops.
The heart is a mechanism. It means nothing.
What does it mean exactly to guide people's hearts ?
It means...
to rule emotion.
Your emotion...
the emotion of other Catholics outside these walls.
If you can rule the emotion of your fellow man,
he will follow you wherever you please.
This is called power.
Our most excellent Voiello exercises it over you all.
John Paul III and myself exercise it over the world at large.
What a marvelous job John Paul III has done !
When he shouted that "No" in Lourdes,
he displayed all the courage you have always lacked.
And last Sunday, at the Angelus,
when he bared his heart, he bared others' hearts as well.
Others who had been concealing themselves.
But now they have emerged from their sorry little rooms,
their ditches of uncertainty.
They're all out there now, in the square.
They came, they stayed,
and they will continue to stay.
What a glorious pope John Paul III !
Because, at long last, John Paul III
has formed the angry base of the young Catholic army.
If need be, I will expand, inspire, and arm them.
The coming days will be crucial.
Which is now why I need you by my side.
I need my red backdrop.
So you will remain by my side,
silent, obedient, and good.
You're too old to reinvent yourselves.
Too old to comprehend the shifts in the emotional nature of this world.
You don't need to trust me.
You need to entrust yourselves to me and pray.
Pray for don Antonio, a good priest who is suffering,
and for six frightened children.
God is by our side.
We tend toward the good and God tends toward the good.
Which is why God will remain by our side.
Because He knows me. And I know Him.
Let us pray !
I don't understand, who is the pope now ?
Shut up and pray, idiot.
When a man, in the name of other men,
and in one God's name,
abducts children, terrorizes them, deprives them of food,
and threatening them with death, he is not just committing a crime.
He is declaring war.
The modern church will not fall for these provocations.
But I am not modern. I am ancient.
I say to you now: I am ready to respond to this declaration of war.
- Your Holiness... - Shut up, and listen to me !
We will annihilate them.
Tomorrow morning,
I want John Paul III to address the people in the square.
Take notes, Voiello. I have to dictate what he will say.
I speak to the kidnappers.
Yes, you are despicable and yes, you're already dead.
You act against any will of any God.
Therefore I command you to release the children and don Antonio.
If you fail to obey, I will come there,
and I will have with me God and iron, faith and fire.
And I will not be alone. You must know that: I will not be alone.
You have any idea of the work we've been doing ?
We haven't slept in days. Our intelligence services,
our diplomats, the vice president,
we're all been working our asses off to save your ass.
Rescue those kids, the priest and your emeritus pope, how does he thank us ?
By having John Paul III say he's ready to declare war ?
Are you out of your minds ?
Last time you fought a war was in 1540,
and that was to conquer Perugia.
Do you have the slightest idea what the danger of declaring war is ?
- No. What ? - You are going to have to fight it !
Calm down, Bauer. Pius XIII is just a little wound up.
Okay, so why don't you try to wind him down a little ?
Cause otherwise I will be force to do something more decisive.
What do you want to do, Bauer ? Assassinate the pope ?
There would be no point. He would just rise again !
He might. You wouldn't.
Let me explain something to you, Your Eminence.
When we know the scenario, we can control it.
But when it's all an unknown, things spin out of control.
One day you're taking your kid to the park,
and the next you're taking cover in a bomb shelter.
One day you're pope, he's a little on wound,
next day world war III breaks out before you even know it.
Now, can you see that living legend behind me ?
- I noticed him immediately. - General Parker. That says it all.
Now, the General is not gonna utter a single word,
but he will move his head in response to my questions.
So watch him carefully.
General Parker, in the event of a war,
would the United States, the most powerful nation on earth,
be willing to save the Vatican's ass ?
- Got it ? - Yes, I got it.
But you're the one who's pretending not to get it.
No one wants a war.
If Pius XIII shows himself to the world,
Catholic fundamentalism will boil over.
If Pius XIII utters the word "war",
millions of people from around the world
are ready to immolate themselves on the Syrian border,
and to launch the greatest religious war of all time.
Many of them will be Americans.
The front lines would include Catholic factions
from the conflicts in former Yugoslavia,
freedom fighters from Ukraine, and the Lithuanian special forces.
And affluent members of the Catholic diaspora
stand ready to finance the conflict and provide arms.
Am I wrong, General Parker ?
See ? We might be a little rusty, but we still know a thing or two about war.
I can't believe we're even having this conversation.
The Vatican entertaining the idea of declaring war on Islam !
- Jesus fucking Christ, Voiello ! - No, hold on Bauer. Not on Islam.
On Islamic terrorism. We know perfectly well
that the majority of Muslims are moderate.
But that's exactly the point. It's the moderate Catholics
who now risk becoming few in number
because the majority would become fundamentalists
if Pius XIII were to show himself.
So now, listen to me, Bauer.
Pius XIII may have in mind to leave a sign,
a divine sign.
Not some momentary peace
that lasts only until the next madman comes along,
eager to carry out an attack somewhere in the world.
But everlasting peace. Or at least a very long lasting peace.
Where you were unable to do it, he may well prove to be successful
because the collective imagination is more powerful than the atomic bomb.
Now do you get it, Bauer ?
Life is so beautiful.
It would be enough to embrace it for what it is:
an opportunity for joy and grace,
for love and lightheartedness.
When did you lose your lightheartedness ?
When ?
Everyone remembers my miracles but they forget about my murders.
They don't know that it was me who killed that poor priest,
that hero, in Ventotene.
And I left those 6 bewildered children alone with those madmen.
Tomorrow they will blame John Paul III but it was me.
I am a danger to others. I am worthless.
A rash, unreasonable child.
Your Holiness, John Paul III would like to see you.
- Your Eminence. - Bauer, what are you doing here ?
I brought someone to see you.
- Who is he ? - The man closest to the Caliph.
- Did you track him down ? - Nope.
And that's why it gets interesting. He tracked me down.
It wasn't us.
Why should I trust you ?
I do not expect in the least that you would trust me.
I don't trust you, and you do not trust me.
I merely wanted to tell you, in person, that it wasn't us.
Not in Lourdes, not in Saint Peter's, not in Ventotene.
Give me one valid reason why I should believe you, and I will.
Europe has become irrelevant.
An old, abandoned shop window that doesn't interest us any more.
Simply for that reason, it wasn't us.
When you don't have proof,
you don't have proof.
Voiello called me.
They made contact, they sought us out.
They're afraid. They claimed it wasn't them.
They're bluffing, naturally. This is the confirmation that it was them.
Are you a charlatan ? Are you a Guru ?
Are you a saint ? Are you the devil ?
Are you the Messiah ? Are you Christ ?
Are you God ?
It doesn't matter, Lenny. I am the pope.
For me, you are a priest, nothing more.
And you will show me perfect obedience, as all priests do.
For that is all we know, that is the Church.
And we answer for the Church.
Your Holiness, you're exactly right.
I'm wrong.
If you continue to listen to me I will continue to make mistakes.
I will withdraw to my tower for the rest of my life,
and no one will ever see me again.
No, you will not withdraw. You will show yourself to the world
and you will say what I did not have the courage to say.
Will you be at my side, Your Holiness ?
No. The moment I have always longed for has finally arrived.
What moment ?
When I fulfill my one and only ambition:
to be forgotten.
But you're the pope.
No.
I am a fragile piece of porcelain.
But I have understood
that my fragility is my strength, not my damnation.
What are you gonna do ?
Will you return home ?
I will return to myself.
Are we sure we didn't forget anything ?
Yes, we are Sir.
What shall I do with the box, Sir ?
Let's keep it for now, shall we ?
As Cardinal Newman used to say: "One never knows in life."
Stand up !
Jesus !
That's Amber, an escort from Hannover.
She follows me everywhere,
actually have we recently decided to gonna get married.
- I'm gonna miss you, Voiello. - You're leaving ?
- Yeah, I'm done here. - Where will you go ?
Korea. Things are really heating up over there.
I'm gonna try calm them down. Don't tell that's where I'm going.
- I didn't need this. - Yeah, I know.
Even though I do all I can to dissuade people,
in the end they always develop a soft spot for me.
You were right, the Caliph didn't carry out any attacks in Europe.
Who am I going to talk now ?
Ever since Girolamo died, you've been my only friend.
Relax Voiello. This is not the fifteen century.
With a few precautions, we can talk on the phone.
You better wish me luck, though. I've been dining on clams here,
they are gonna feed me dog soup in Korea.
Isn't he the sweetest thing, my little Bauer octopus ?
Please, don't say that, sweetheart. You're demolishing the legend.
Voiello, I need you to explain something to me.
Why would some Catholics try to kill other Catholics ?
Because fanaticism and obtuseness are one and the same thing.
Anyway, they don't eat dog in Korea any more.
I know. I know, but it doesn't merely matter.
Whenever they serve me food, that's gonna be my expectation,
that will be my perception.
Dog.
And as you and I know all too well, my friend,
perception is everything.
Sir John...
Your parents wish to see you.
They would like to welcome you home.
Our mouths are filled with the word "love."
But I, before anyone else, didn't know how to define it.
Our mouths are filled with the word "beauty."
But I, before anyone else, didn't know how to receive it.
For this, I ask you forgiveness.
Please, forgive me.
At times we confound love with madness.
Beauty with ecstasy.
History has repeated itself.
Madness and ecstasy have once again proven to be irresistible temptations,
but they always end the way they did on Ventotene.
With unjust death.
In this case, of a good and innocent priest.
There is a life of happiness to be found in the sphere of gentleness,
kindness, mildness, lovingness.
We must learn to be in the world.
And the Church must contemplate
the idea of opening up to the love that is possible,
in order to fight against the love that is aberrant.
All this, John Paul III, with great humility,
calls "the middle way."
In the past few days I have understood.
It's not the middle way.
It is the way.
Ever since I came back,
you've been asking yourselves all sorts of questions.
Is he the father or the son ?
Is he God or the Holy Spirit ?
Is he man or is he Jesus ?
Did he wake up or did he rise from the dead ?
Is he a saint or is he an imposter ?
Is he Christ or is he the Antichrist ?
Is he alive or is he dead ?
It doesn't matter.
You know what is so beautiful about questions ?
It's that we don't have the answers.
In the end, only God has the answers.
They are his secret.
God's secret, which only He knows.
That is the mystery in which we believe.
And that is the mystery which guide our conscience.
And now I would like to come down among you,
and do what I have wanted to do since the first moment:
embrace you, one by one.
THE NEW POPE
Brother Cardinals,
after the good fortune of two truly great popes,
John Paul III and Pius XIII,
what is it we need ?
A man steeped in mediocrity.
Dull, hard working, sensitive,
and receptive to the countless request
of his beloved colleagues in the college of cardinals.
I didn't sleep a wink last night.
I read and re-read the pontifical yearbook a thousand times,
and in the end, I didn't find
a single name that responds to the call.
I did. I've found a name.
Which one, Don Cavallo ?
The last one, alphabetically: Voiello Angelo.
Why do you always have to make me feel so uneasy ?
Pius, you're a pain in the ass.