The Two Popes
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EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE The Odd Catholic Couple: Review of The Two Popes Andrés Sánchez It is no wonder that the lead actors confined to the rooms of his Vatican in The Two Popes, Anthony Hopkins apartment. and Jonathan Pryce, have been nomi- nated for Golden Globes, Oscars, and And who are Francis and Benedict British Academy Film Awards. After XVI but the incarnations of those all, the 2019 film, by director Fernan- two sides? First, the dutiful and do Meirelles, is a character study, the delicate Joseph Ratzinger. Born in very kind of movie that relies on ac- conservative Bavaria, raised with an tors’ skillful portrayal. At the center elder brother who is also a priest, of the film are Popes Benedict XVI and possessed of a lifelong desire and Francis, who represent the two for the priesthood, he allowed him- sides of the coin that was John Paul II. self to be led by a sense of pastoral It is no wonder, either, that the movie and intellectual duty from the Sec- starts with Francis, then the cardinal ond Vatican Council to a professor’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of chair at the University of Tübingen, Buenos Aires, as he receives the news the same place where Georg Wilhelm of John Paul’s death in the middle of Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schelling, an evangelizing mission in a poor vil- and Friedrich Hölderlin co-found- la miseria (slum) of the city. ed the German Idealist philosoph- ical movement. There Professor Facing The Two Popes, just like facing Ratzinger transformed from a young the history of the Catholic Church reform-minded priest into a conser- in the first two decades of the twen- vative guardian of tradition after wit- ty-first century, necessarily means nessing the global youth rebellions of facing John Paul II. His two sides, the 1968. It was a transformation that oc- popular—almost populist—leader curred much to the chagrin of those who kissed the ground as soon as his around him, including his colleague Alitalia flight landed at any airport and intellectual rival Hans Küng. and the zealous conservative who strove to remove any leftist influence While 1968 turned Ratzinger into a from the Church, especially in Latin conservative, it bore different fruits America, existed alongside one an- on the other side of the Atlantic. In other. They were masterfully held Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, together by his charm, his soothing who was a chemical technician and a voice, his knowledge of several lan- bouncer before heading to the semi- guages, and his unrelenting schedule nary, was ordained as a priest in 1969 of global travel, which only ceased and began his training as a Jesuit. It when his fragile health kept him was an era when Liberation Theol- 62 © 2020 The Wheel. May be distributed for noncommercial use. www.wheeljournal.com ogy, a theological movement that It is the events of this era on which emphasizes social and economic Fernando Meirelles, the film’s Bra- justice as anticipatory of our ulti- zilian director—whose work has al- mate salvation, flourished in Latin ways been grounded in social and America. The year prior to Ber- environmental issues (Cidade de Deus, goglio’s ordination, the Medellín Blindness, The Constant Gardener, and Conference met in Colombia to the opening ceremony of the Rio debate the application of Vatican 2016 Olympics)—focuses as he ex- II in Latin America. This gathering plores how Father Bergolio became of liberal and progressive bishops Pope Francis. First, there was the and priests from throughout the re- assassination of Carlos Mugica, an gion is widely considered to have extremely popular priest in the vil- been one of the founding moments las of Buenos Aires, by paramilitary of liberation theology. At first op- forces in 1974; and then, with even posed to liberation theology, the fu- more relevance for Bergoglio’s biog- ture Pope Francis came to embrace raphy, the kidnapping of two Jesuits, its call for a political and socially Franz Jalics and Orlando Yorio. Their engaged Christian faith, dedicated imprisonment and torture, and Ber- to seeing justice done in this world, goglio’s role in it, according to the not only the next. This change of movie, is what led Bergoglio to be- heart was the result of very specific come the down-to-earth cleric who, events in his life and the life of his even after becoming Cardinal and country. In 1973 he was named the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, took the Provincial of the Society of Jesus subte through the city and walked in (the Jesuits) in Argentina. Three the most dangerous areas. years later, a military junta took power in the country through a After John Paul’s death, Benedict XVI coup, beginning a period of polit- finds rotten fruits in the Vatican. The ical repression and state violence. scandals of sexual abuse have ap- Argentina’s was a not uncommon peared all over the world (and were story in South America, and this portrayed in an Oscar-winning mov- period of oppression and fear left a ie, Spotlight). The calm, traditional, mark on Bergoglio. and introverted Pope decides it is The Wheel 20 | Winter 2020 63 imperative to shake the Church. The of all by flipping the coin, from his final straw are the revelations involv- own reserved and intellectual style ing the Mexican priest Marcial Ma- to the popularity of Francis, the ciel, a powerful figure in the Church priest from the end of the world. and a darling of John Paul II. Maciel’s The scenes where the styles of Fran- legacy as the founder of the Legion cis and Benedict merge are not only of Christ, a fundraiser, and a friend the most amusing, but also the most of powerful leaders in the Hispanic revealing, using Benedict’s passion world was tainted by revelations of for orange soda and Francis’ well- sexual abuse, which led Benedict to known love of football and pizza as discipline him and to confine him to metaphors for the unexpected path a retirement house in Florida, where that the Catholic Church has fol- he died in 2008. lowed since that day when the Ger- man pope announced his intention These events are all true. The fiction- to be the first pope to resign in six al element added by the screenwrit- centuries. In this way, The Two Popes er, the Oscar-nominated Anthony reveals with shocking clarity the McCarten, is how Benedict seeks fraught battle lines that divide not out Cardinal Bergoglio to become only twenty-first century Catholi- the next pope and entrusts him with cism, but all of Christendom, pro- his planned resignation. It seems as gressive and conservative, reformist though Benedict, shown at the be- and traditionalist, humanizing the ginning of the film as a shrewd pol- crisis through the humanity of the itician who wants to continue John two “princes of the Church” whose Paul II’s path towards a conservative leadership personifies the two sides church, makes the shrewdest move of the battle. Andrés Sánchez graduated from the Pontifical Xavierian Univer- sity in Colombia with a bachelor’s degree in literature. Current- ly he works as an independent researcher, writer, and teacher based in Bogotá. 64.