A couple of weeks ago, I went to the local cinema and watched the 2024 movie Conclave. It was definitely the film of the year as far as I was concerned and I was not surprised when, just a few days ago, it won the BAFTA Best Picture award for 2024.
It was not the first such Vatican scenario that I have immensely enjoyed.
In 2014, I went to the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne to see David Suchet making his Australian stage debut in The Last Confession. Set in the corridors of the Vatican at the time of the sudden and controversial death of Pope John Paul I only 33 days after his election. Suchet played Cardinal Giovanni Benelli who recounts, during his last confession, his role in the death of John Paul. Benelli investigates the death, suspecting the Pope was murdered. Realising that a request for an autopsy would damage the church, Benelli decides to end the investigation and tries to become Pope himself. This time his efforts to manipulate the conclave fail and a compromise candidate, Karol Wojtyla, is elected Pope.
Conclave, based on Robert Harris' 2016 book, is very similar as this brief synopsis shows
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
Having enjoyed the movie so much, I immediately bought a new copy of the book from Dymocks Bookstore in Melbourne and knocked it over in only a few days. Harris specialises in Historial Fiction and this fits perfectly into that genre. The other Harris books I remember enjoying are Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel.
Coming from a Catholic background and having seen the vast changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, I was primed to really enjoy this novel and that I did.
The book follows Cardinal Lomelli who has the task of facilitating the Conclave as the Dean of Cardinals. We follow his investigations into corruption and secrets, his spiritual struggles and the reflections of his own conscience as he navigates his way thought the various voting procedures, each producing its own twist. The book describes in wonderful detail the process of electing a new pope, with full descriptions of the procedures, rituals and places. It also reminds us that participants of conclave may be driven by forces that are material rather than spiritual.
Definitely a 5 star read.
