Went to the cinema to see it. A friend who is a priest came along as well.
I expected him to rubbish it all but instead he reckoned it was a pretty accurate reflection of what goes on with factions/ agendas/ personalities etc all at play.
Book was excellent - holiday reading last year - but have yet to see the film.
Main observation is that it is not the most holy who gets elected as chief priest, but the one with political nous and sharp elbows. Like being in politics!!!
In case you want a flutter here are the latest odds. Smart money is on Parolin according to a Catholic friend.
Next Pope odds
Angelo De Donatis
20/1
Angelo Scola
20/1
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
16/1
Jose Tolentino
20/1
Luis Antonio Tagle
3/1
Matteo Zuppi
7/1
Peter Erdo
8/1
Peter Turkson
8/1
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
12/1
Pietro Parolin
6/4
Raymond Leo Burke
14/1
Robert Sarah
20/1
Wim Eijk
16/1
There was, according to some sources, a female pope. Pope Joan becam Pope somtime in the ninth century. She disguised herself as a man and all was well until whe apparently gave birth during a procession and was later murdered.
There was a story, doubtless apochryphal, that before final confirmaton, the Pope elect is carried, commando, over a selection of cardinals, to prove he is correctly equipped.
>> There was a story, doubtless apochryphal, that before final confirmaton, the Pope elect is carried,
>> commando, over a selection of cardinals, to prove he is correctly equipped.
I think there is a non apochryphal doctor involved.
I wonder how many of them still believe in God once they get to that age? Seemingly quite a high percentage of older catholic priests do not, around 18% I believe.
The figure is probably higher in the C of E which is a lighter touch religion, tending to attract a fair proportion of people who see it as a form of social work.
>> There was, according to some sources, a female pope. Pope Joan becam Pope somtime in
>> the ninth century. She disguised herself as a man and all was well until whe
>> apparently gave birth during a procession and was later murdered.
>>
Please don't give Barbra Streisand any more ideas for musical films.
It is interesting to read of the various factions within the Catholic Church who are strongly opposed to one another. The recent film seems to be very accurate in this respect and there are actually a lot of new Cardinals , appointed by Francis around the globe who could well be vital in how the voting goes.
Didn’t realise until recently that the word Conclave - Con Clave in Italian means “with key” The Cardinals are locked in until they make a decision.
I just took the bins out and I immediately noticed something rather odd about my street. Nobody out cleaning their cars. Nobody out in their gardens. No kids riding their bikes, no laughing and giggling. Nobody driving off to the supermarket. Not even the noise of a score of lawnmowers. How odd on a scorching Saturday morning.
I can only imagine they're all watching something gripping on the telly.
I won't bother switching it on, I'm going to sit in the garden with a book and top up the tan.
>>
>>
>> I can only imagine they're all watching something gripping on the telly.
>>
>> I won't bother switching it on, I'm going to sit in the garden with a
>> book and top up the tan.
>>
>> Let me know if I've missed anything interesting.
>>
It's the World Snooker Championships, Dave. They'll all be glued to that.
Why did BBC2 (on Friday) take the snooker off live terrestrial coverage for coverage of the death of a cult figure, when they have a a dedicated news channel available for news?
Good question. They could easily have informed the snooker audience via a news flash that the pontiff had been potted and directed them to another channel for coverage.
They'll probably have some guff ready about the snooker audience being relatively small.
Media coverage has been completely excessive wall to wall pope for much of the last week.
I started to wonder why when only about 9% (3.8m) of the population identify as catholic, of which it is estimated ~0.5m regularly attend mass.
No wish to offend those of the faith, but interest in the UK in the passing of an aged, largely out of touch religious leader (zealot??) seems unbalanced.
Perhaps it's down to money - rather than send reporters at great expense and risk to far flung parts of the world to report on conflicts, famine etc, they get to spend a spring week in a sun bathed Italian city on an expenses paid jolly.
>> I'm a hardened atheist but I'll be following the enpoplement with interest.
I am in a difficult postion. hard Atheist, but huge admirer of the architecture and history religeon (of all colours) has created, and fascinated by the pomp and circumstance.
Ie think the bible/koran is a load of old bollo, but admire the books, script and illuminations as art and history.