The Search for Holiness in the Young Pope: an Orthodox View

Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law). Still: HBO.

EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE The Search for Holiness in The Young Pope: An Orthodox View

Sergei Kruglov Translated by Inga Leonova

The HBO series The Young Pope, di- heretics who have conformed to the rected by Paolo Sorrentino, generated world and abandoned understanding unexpectedly involved and heated of the essence of Christianity. On the discussion among Orthodox Chris- other hand, the children of the Roman tians in Russia. It seemed as though Church, with its own centuries-old tra- every self-identified believer in Russia ditions, see themselves as the center of watched it. Some spat and condemned the Christian oikumena. They consider it. The majority admired it. But no- the Orthodox, if not quite schismatics, body remained indifferent or reserved then at least an ethnic and historical judgment until the first season’s end. curiosity. Russian Orthodoxy only appears in The Young Pope in one of the “Jump!” last episodes, in a scene lasting just a couple of minutes. We see a fictional The subject of the series is the Vat- patriarch granted an audience by Pius ican, that is to say, the Roman Cath- XIII, an obviously comic character, ac- olic Church. Russian Orthodoxy has companied by a boisterous folk melo- long taught that Moscow is the Third dy and unable to utter a single word. Rome, the center of the Christian oikumena, the only true church, and that Even more mysterious than the image © 2018 The Wheel. Russian Orthodox believers are the of Russian Orthodoxy in the series is May be distributed for leaders of the entire Church. Catho- the character of a kangaroo who, re- noncommercial use. lics have accordingly been viewed as leased from its cage, jumps around www.wheeljournal.com

64 the Vatican gardens like some kind ing for a pill with serious contents. of extraterrestrial. Enchanted by his The show’s conversation is about us, encounters with the kangaroo, seeing and through us about the Church; something prophetic in them (a mys- it is about our faith and our doubts. tical destiny of the Church? himself, “Pope Francis said recently that faith his fate, his soul . . . ?), the Pope com- cannot be complete unless tormented mands him, “Jump!” The Pope (or by doubts,” Sorrentino remarks. “In rather the director, Paolo Sorrentino) the series you can see not just doubts: thus performs a miracle. The kanga- there is a second, dark side of faith. roo jumped and the series captivated Holiness and hypocrisy. And ulti- Russian viewers—and made many of mately only the connection with or- them ponder the cultural, political, dinary, everyday life—Maradona’s and everyday differences between scoring a goal or the wisdom of a per- Christians of different regions. How son with disabilities—makes the faith important are the differences between alive.” Christians of various countries and confessions, after all? How different The Orphan are the problems faced by an ordinary person from problems faced by the The great success of the series is the Church of Christ? portrayal of the main character by Jude Law. The director believes that Real Or Fictional this will be a seminal role for Law, and that acting in the series has People both want and expect a con- changed the actor. The story of Lenny versation about the pressing problems Belardo, the American Catholic cleric of the contemporary Church. This de- who becomes the youngest Pope in sire creates a market for films about history, is above all the fate of a com- the Church that are not marked with plex and wounded person to whom a the official seal. Every now and then large number of people can relate. The on social media, I come upon indig- Pope is an orphan, though it is unclear nant comments by Orthodox laity and whether his parents died or simply clergy who say, “We started watching abandoned him. The conflict between The Young Pope. At first everything fathers and children in the series is seemed to be interesting and relevant, obtrusively straightforward: The par- but then a kind of nonsense began. ents are committed hippies, but Len- Life is not like this. We were not ex- ny grows up in a church environment. pecting it!” That is, people reacted to He is a Vatican cleric, a representative the series as if it had really been con- of the same establishment that the ceived as an actual conversation about hippies, in theory, should hate. And in the problems of the Church. Yes, the Lenny’s memories, his parents again conversation does happen in a way, and again run away from him. The but still The Young Pope is first and Pope is an orphan, carrying the burn- foremost a spectacle, a series created ing desire of love through his whole with knowledge of its subject, but by life. This unrest is the fulcrum, and a completely secular man. at the same time the lever by which the young rigorist in the tiara seeks Nevertheless, perhaps the “secular- to turn the world around. “I have no ity” and the cinematic glamor, great father, and therefore I have found the entertainment value, and fascinating Father” is a psychological construct narrative serve as an effective coat- which claims to explain his faith. The

The Wheel 15 | Fall 2018 65 Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law). Photo: Gianni Fiorito/HBO.

underlying question of love for God, the trees for the forest—that is, living love for people, and the transforma- people for the church as an institu- tion of these two loves into one is cen- tion? How can one accept the world tral to the arc of Law’s character. in all its complexity and yet not lose a living and ardent faith? Sorrentino It is not for nothing that in one of the himself says, “The Pope fights with episodes the Pope’s private letters himself, with his own phantoms. He become a universal sensation. They is trying to free himself from his tragic are unsent, chaste letters to a girl he childhood, although he is very con- had met only once in his youth and nected to it. His ambitions are born whose name he did not know, letters not so much from vanity, as from the about a man’s love for a woman, as- desire to stop being a son and become cending to a single Source of Love. a father for hundreds of millions of Other characters are also “sick with the faithful. Obviously this is not an love” in the higher sense: Sister Mary, easy path, and on this path one can- who became the “Ma” of Lenny and not help making mistakes, because he the other children of her orphanage; has to change at the speed of light.” It Cardinal Voiello, who is in love with is these errors and these changes that Sister Mary; the young wife of a Swiss reveal the Pope to be a living person. guardsman who is finally able to give birth to a child by the Pope’s prayer. The City On a Hill We watch the furious orphan grow up. By the fifth episode, the rigorist The story of an orphan acting out his Pope is changing, trying to resolve sufferings and complexes is not new. the questions he cannot avoid: How However, here the orphan is placed can compromise with a sin be dis- in a very specific environment, the tinguished from charity to a sinner? highest echelon of ecclesiastical au- © 2018 The Wheel. How can one understand freedom thority, in which the human element May be distributed for noncommercial use. when one is not free from childhood manifests itself with the greatest www.wheeljournal.com fears and illusions? How can we see clarity.

66 “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says This message is understandable. In the Lord God, who is and who was the world there is a longing for sacred and who is to come, the Almighty” mystery, for holiness that is not di- (Rev. 1:8). All people—even atheists minished by earthly life and will not and opponents of the Church, the dissolve in vanity, which is especially critical and the indifferent alike—are noticeable against the background of drawn to the Church to ask the most secularization of the Church’s institu- acute, burning questions. Everyone tions and practices. Too often under feels that it is in the Church that the what appears to be Christian pretexts, search for meaning can somehow be be it social service, peacekeeping mis- resolved, for the Church is about God, sions, or ecumenical dialogue, the about the truth, about the meaning of Church bureaucracy tries to insert it- my life that I myself cannot under- self into the affairs of this world, to oc- stand. The Church cannot hide from cupy a cozy place at the throne of Cae- these inquiries: it is the city on a hill, sar for the sake of honor, power, and visible from afar to all, friends and en- prosperity. It is also worrying when emies, believers and haters. churches feel more like ritual service shops, or when fashionable ideolo- This is why so many viewers were gy begins to prevail over the Gospel, attracted to this series: it is about the or when missionary zeal is obscured Church, and therefore about us, about by a desire to lure as many sheep as the most important thing in us. possible into the fold so they can be “sheared.” Regarding the last, Sorren- The Fifth Episode tino says in an interview, “I learned that the main fear in the Vatican and I almost wish that the fifth episode the main concern of its inhabitants all had ended the series. It is the apothe- the way to the very top is the number osis of Pius XIII, who reminded every- of believers. The number is very im- one that his predecessor in the “Pius” portant. How many believers do we line was a conservative and a support- have? How many did we lose? How er of Mussolini. He puts the Curia in many can we bring back?” its place, exposes the scheming of the insidious Secretary of State, reveals to The primary concern of Secretary of the world his own moral purity and State Voiello, whose politics the Pope even holiness, taunts the pulp-greedy blames for the dwindling number of secular public, punishes a homosex- Vatican tourists, is very similar to the ual and pardons an alcoholic, sets concerns of a typical Orthodox priest, the Vatican on a new course, one of the rector of a village church, fretting conservatism and a “revival of the from dawn to dusk to find money to foundations.” All are trembling, over- repair the roof, to renovate the ico- whelmed by the irresistible force of nostasis, to pay the endlessly growing his words and deeds. “What have we diocesan assessment, and so on and forgotten? We have forgotten about so forth. A groan goes up through- God!” Having gathered the cardinals, out the world: “Who is my God? The the Pope tells them ex cathedra, “They Trinity or Mammon?” Thankfully, the are knocking from the outside, the director of the series has not created world is knocking, but from now on Cardinal Voiello as a black-and-white we are not at home.” caricature. In one scene, we see him

The Wheel 15 | Fall 2018 67 in prayer, kneeling in front of a wall this wonderful character will not be in his house hung with ancient cruci- spoiled in the follow-up series. fixes, and groaning about the same: “What am I doing, Lord, and how On Holiness long will I live like this?” The vertiginous turns of the plot, un- Cardinal Voiello predictable and sometimes completely ridiculous on the surface, are in Cardinal Voiello, portrayed by Silvio fact quite true to life, which itself is Orlando, is perhaps the best character long, fascinating, and unpredictable. of the series. A hardened schemer and And in it there is a place for the mi- manager, he says at one point when raculous. invited to confess: “All my sins are connected with politics and financ- In the course of the series it turns es. You will not understand anything out, for example, that the new Pope, about them.” Yet he is capable of love this hooligan smoking in the halls of and compassion. He sees the action of the Vatican, who humbles and tames the Holy Spirit in the election of the the older cardinals, and sneaks out Pope, and in the Pope himself, whose at night with a friend to toss around conversation with a woman he want- Rome, is a saint. He has a person- ed to use as compromising evidence. al relationship with God, whom he Cardinal Angelo Voi- ello (Silvio Orlando). We see this, according to the direc- addresses in prayer passionately, Photo: Gianni Fiorito/ tor, “as always between the lines.” straightforwardly, demandingly, HBO. And in all cases charming. Hopefully honestly, with deep faith.

68 In his adolescence, the dying moth- and confused, always changing—in a Pope Pius XIII (Jude er of his friend was returned to life word, alive. Law). Photo: Gianni by his prayer. By his prayer a barren Fiorito/HBO. woman conceives, a wicked abbess is There is no contradiction here, be- struck by heavenly punishment. Like cause in every mortal both the Saint Francis, he talks to animals. He heavenly and the perishable are in- is discerning and sees right through tertwined. But the basis of the per- the intrigues of his opponents, sees sonality of Lenny Belardo is this holi- the secrets in the hearts of those ness, this living faith and connection around him. At the same time he re- with God. It is the basis that defines mains human, complex, passionate, him, and the rest is capable of change. mistaken, sometimes rigid and unfair, Repentance in Greek is metanoia—“a sometimes absurd, sometimes weak change of mind.”

Sergius Kruglov is a poet, writer, and Orthodox priest. He is serv- ing in the Savior Cathedral in Minusinsk, Russia. Kruglov’s poems and prose have been published in Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, and the USA. He is the author of ten poetry volumes, several non-fiction books on the church subjects, a contributor to the Orthodox Internet portal Pravmir, and from 2013 to 2016 was the author and anchor of the radio show “Poetry: The Movement of Words.” He is the winner of the Andrei Bely Prize © 2018 The Wheel. May be distributed for for poetry (2008), “Moscow Account” prize (2008), “ANTOLOGIA” noncommercial use. prize (2016). www.wheeljournal.com

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